A new report written by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has slammed the FDA for allowing dangerous antibiotics to remain in the feed for livestock.

The report states that the US Food and Drug Administration let 18 drugs used livestock feed remain in the market, even though there were reviews on them saying they posed a “high risk” of bringing humans into contact with strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

“This discovery is disturbing but not surprising given FDA’s poor track record on dealing with this issue,” said Carmen Cordova, who is a microbiologist, in a statement. “It’s just more overwhelming evidence that FDA — in the face of a mounting antibiotic resistance health crisis — is turning a blind eye to industry’s misuse of these miracle drugs.”

Critics of the report have pointed out that some of the drugs in the list of 18 have been taken down since then, and the FDA have released their own statement in response to the report.

“Based on its review of this and other information, the Agency chose to employ a strategy that would more broadly address the concerns about the production use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals,” the FDA statement said.  They are apparently “confident that its current strategy to protect the effectiveness of medically important antimicrobials, including penicillins and tetracyclines, is the most efficient and effective way to change the use of these products in animal agriculture.”

[via The Verge, Reuters, RT, image via Slaunger’s flickr]