BY: SAMANTHA BARTLETT, DVM

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered nine online pet suppliers to cease the sale of over-the-counter antimicrobials. These products are being “illegally marketed” and include antibiotics used in human medicine such as amoxicillin, penicillin, tetracycline and erythromycin. The products are mostly marketed for pet fish and birds; however, experts believe that overuse of these products has contributed to increased instances of antimicrobial resistant infections. 

The nine pet suppliers being warned by the FDA are Chewy, American Aquarium Products, Aquanest Biotic, Aquarium Pharmacy, LLC, California Veterinary Supply, Kraft Drug, Midland Veterinary Services, LLC, Silver Lease, LLC and Valley Veterinary Clinic, LTD. The FDA gave the companies 15 days to submit a plan to remove the products from sale inventory under threat of legal action and inventory seizure.

The overuse of these antimicrobial drugs leads to treatment resistant infections as organisms become immune to the drugs. The World Health Organization estimates that pathogens resistant to antimicrobials caused over 1 million deaths in 2019 and were a contributor in almost 5 million other deaths. The Centers for Disease Control reported that of 2.8 million cases of antimicrobial resistant infections in the U.S. in 2019, 35,000 resulted in deaths.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) stresses that antimicrobial use in animals and its connection to antimicrobial resistance is not clear. The AVMA states that resistance is more common in human pathogens transmitted between humans as opposed to pathogens tracked back to animals or food-borne illness. The AVMA refers to antimicrobial drugs in animals as an important resource for the veterinarian. Another contributing factor is the use of animal labeled antimicrobial drugs sold online being used by humans to self-medicate.