The use of antibiotics in food-producing animals — including drugs considered medically important to humans — increased again in 2014 amid growing efforts to curb the practice.
Overall use of antimicrobials increased by 4 percent between 2013 and 2014, according to a new report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The use of medically important antimicrobials increased by 3 percent during that span.
The FDA report also said that medically important antibiotics accounted for more than 60 percent of overall antimicrobial sales for use in food animals.
Tetracyclines — which are no longer considered front-line antibiotics for humans — comprised 70 percent of those sales, but other, more critical antibiotics also jumped.
Farmers use antibiotics in order to prevent the spread of disease, but that practice increasingly came under fire amid the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The FDA earlier this year sought to collect additional information from drug makers about antibiotics used on farms, but critics said that stricter limits are needed.
The use of antibiotics increased by 22 percent between 2009 and 2014, according to the latest FDA numbers.
"As the coalition has been saying for years, FDA must set clear targets for the reduction in antibiotic use," said Susan Vaughn Grooters of Keep Antibiotics Working. "Otherwise, industry will continue to conduct business as usual, while the crisis of resistance continues to loom large and consumers pay the price.”
Meat industry groups downplayed previous FDA reports about their antibiotic use but nonetheless vowed to collaborate with other stakeholders in a White House effort to combat antibiotic resistance.
A growing number of companies, meanwhile, took steps to remove antibiotics from their supply chains amid growing concern from consumers, from chicken producers Perdue, Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson to large restaurant chains McDonald's, Subway and Chick-Fil-A.