Washington, DC - “Keep Antibiotics Working: The Campaign to End Antibiotic Overuse,” today launched an Internet campaign to educate the public about the growing health threat of antibiotic resistance. The animated video, “Playing Games with Public Health,” uses a game show format with bacteria as contestants to explain how the overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture is threatening public health. Host “Lee Coli” (i.e. E. coli) puts contestant “Sal Monella” (i.e. Salmonella) through his paces as he competes for a “deluxe petri dish” in the bonus round.

Agricultural overuse of antibiotics promotes development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, including bacteria that can cause illness in humans. The American Medical Association, American Public Health Association, and other leading health organizations now oppose the routine feeding of antibiotics to farm animals. The video leads viewers to www.AntibioticsPetition.com, which provides a mechanism to send messages to Congress and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging them to phase out the use of medically important antibiotics in healthy farm animals. (To view the video, go to www.AntibioticsPetition.com.)

“Now more than ever, Americans are becoming aware of how critical it is to have access to effective antibiotics for fighting against bacteria, from Salmonella to those that cause anthrax,” said David Wallinga, M.D., Senior Scientist with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “The video campaign is a fun and engaging way to educate the public about a serious topic – how unnecessarily feeding antibiotics to healthy food animals puts everyone’s health at risk. The video also gives people something to do about the problem.”

The animated game show is the second installment in the campaign’s Internet organizing efforts. Previously, www.BayerWatch.com was launched to educate the public about Bayer’s refusal to comply with FDA’s proposed ban of Baytril, a Cipro-like antibiotic that is used to treat sick chickens and turkeys. FDA proposed the ban based on data showing that use of Baytril is promoting development of resistance to Cipro in bacteria that cause certain types of severe food poisoning in humans. That effort has produced over 6,100 email letters to Bayer CEO Helge Wehmeier urging Bayer to “immediately withdraw Baytril from the market and drop its appeal of the proposed FDA ban on its use in poultry.”

“Keep Antibiotics Working: The Campaign To End Antibiotic Overuse” is a coalition of health, consumer, agricultural, environmental and other advocacy groups dedicated to eliminating a major cause of antibiotic resistance - the inappropriate use of antibiotics in farm animals. For more information, visit the website at www.KeepAntibioticsWorking.com.

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