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Dec 14 (Reuters) - Chewy and eight other companies are violating federal law by selling or making unapproved antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs for animals that could potentially give rise to drug-resistant superbugs, the U.S. health regulator said. Inappropriate use of medically important antimicrobials contributes to the development of antimicrobial resistance, which affects both human and animal health," Tracey Forfa, director of the FDA's veterinary medicine center, said in a statement on Thursday. The drugs being sold are not approved, neither are they listed on the FDA's index for unapproved animal drugs for minor species, the main legal pathways for animal drugs to reach the marketplace. The FDA also said that using unapproved animal drugs in humans could delay effective treatment and allow infections to become severe and resistant to antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs."