Farmers like John Vrieze are looking to the Food and Drug Administration to approve cefquinome, a powerful drug that could combat “shipping fever,” a pneumonia-like illness commonly found in cows.

“If she gets sick and needs an antibiotic, we ought to be able to give her the latest, best, technologically advanced antibiotic we can,” said Vrieze, who runs the 2,600-head Emerald Dairy farm.

But a panel of medical experts recently recommended the Food and Drug Administration not approve the drug, saying it could encourage the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

“You’re climbing up a ladder until you get to where there’s only a few drugs left” to kill the toughest germs, said Steve Roach, public health director of the Chicago-based nonprofit Food Animal Concerns Trust.

The case has grabbed the attention of consumers interested in how food is grown, pesticide use and animal welfare.

The FDA declined to comment on the controversy, saying it continues to collect information on cefquinome.

Veterinarians don’t really need the drug to treat shipping fever because other antibiotics work on the illness, said Kevin Funk, a large animal veterinarian. But they would like to have more drugs approved to treat ailments such as mastitis, a milk duct infection for which there’s no injectable antibiotic, he said. Right now, vets use drugs approved for other illnesses to try to fight the disease.

“Our choices are really limited,” Funk said.

Doctors and others say they worry that cefquinome would eventually be used for a variety of ailments even if it is approved only to treat shipping fever.

Source: Oshkosh Northwestern