RW,

I don't have a link... sorry. I read the story in the Indianapolis Star today, and I couldn't find the story in their online edition.

The title of the article is: "Health groups sound alarm about antibiotic for cattle". The byline is: "FDA is expected to approve the drug this spring; many experts fear such use will speed resistance."

The first paragraph of the article states: "The government is on track to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency's own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous - for people."

Going on it states: "The drug, called cefquinome, belongs to a class of highly potent antibiotics that are among medicine's last defense against several serious human infections. No drug from that class has ever been approved in the United States for use in animals."

And here's the icing on the cake: ".... In the end, the agency adopted language that, for drugs such as cefquinome, is more deferential to pharmaceutical companies than is recommended by the World Health Organization."

This is one more thing that I just don't get. Or maybe I really do get it.... and that is the sad part.

Maybe I'm jumping to a wrong conclusion (again?), as maybe the use of this antibiotic would be very limited. This is clearly a case where I don't know as much as I should about the antibiotic's use, or about animal health/treatment in general.

I would think this writeup appeared in other Sunday papers. But, should anyone wish to hear more of what was written, I would be happy to provide the entire content here.

Jeff