The sale and distribution of antibiotics for livestock dropped 10 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to numbers released Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration and cited by Reuters.
Here are five things to know.
1. Scientists have long warned that antibiotic use in healthy animals is worsening antibiotic resistance.
2. In November, the World Health Organization issued new guidelines for the use of antibiotics in livestock, calling on farmers and the food industry to stop using the drugs in healthy animals.
3. The drop in sales marked the first such decline in year-to-year sales for antibiotics approved for use in animals that produce food since 2009, when the FDA first began compiling data on the sales.
4. Seventy percent of antibiotics used in livestock are also used in humans. Specifically, sales of these antibiotics for use in animals dropped by 14 percent in 2016.
5. Major food companies like McDonald's and Tyson Foods have stepped up efforts in recent years to curb antibiotic use among their animals.
"Actions speak louder than words, and the most action we've seen on antibiotics has come from food companies," Matthew Wellington, the antibiotics program director of the public interest campaigning group U.S. PIRG, told Reuters. "We're cheering this good news."
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