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Sales and distribution of medically important antimicrobial drugs used in US livestock rose 16% from 2023 to 2024 but is still 27% lower than peak sales in 2015, according to the newest report from the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Center for Veterinary Medicine. At FACT, we attribute it to a failure to put in place common sense steps such as eliminating antibiotic use in animals without diagnosed bacterial infection and failure to set targets for reduction in antibiotic use either by the meat industry or the federal government," Roach said. More intense antibiotic use The report also features an interactive chart on 2024 biomass-adjusted sales data, which adjusts raw annual antibiotic sales data to account for the total mass (the estimated population multiplied by the average weight) of each animal species that may have received those drugs. So, I would characterize sales outside of chicken creeping up until last year when they all rapidly increased." The FDA has produced the report each year since 2008, when legislation was enacted to require sponsors of approved or conditionally approved applications for new animal drugs with an antibiotic as an active ingredient to inform the FDA of the amount of each antibiotic in each drug."