Why did the APVMA review virginiamycin?
A study conducted by the Australian Government’s Joint Expert Advisory Committee on Antibiotic Resistance identified a possible link between the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals and the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria or their genes, to humans. The Expert Committee recommended that the effects on human health of the use of virginiamycin in food-producing animals be reviewed. Virginiamycin belongs to the same class of antibiotics as an important drug that is used to treat people who suffer from infections that are resistant to treatment by other commonly used antibiotics. Doctors who treat infectious diseases are concerned that the use of virginiamycin may lead to the emergence of bacterial resistance to this related human antibiotic, so that human infections may not be treatable by antibiotics from the same class as virginiamycin. The impact on people would be severe, particularly for those requiring treatment in intensive care units.
