103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
HB3567

 

Introduced 2/17/2023, by Rep. Norma Hernandez

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
New Act

    Creates the Administration of the Transparent and Responsible Antibiotic Use Act. Provides that, on or after January 1, 2025, feed distributors shall report to the Department of Agriculture all veterinary feed directives associated with medicated feed distributed to producers along with associated feed distribution records. Provides that the Department shall set a target for reducing the use of medically important antibiotics in food processing by 50%. Provides that the Attorney General has exclusive authority to enforce the provisions of this Act and each violation of this Act is punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed $1,000 to be paid to the Department and deposited into the Agricultural Premium Fund in the State treasury. Provides that the Attorney General may seek injunctive relief to prevent further violations of the Act. Defines terms.


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A BILL FOR

 

HB3567LRB103 30049 RLC 56472 b

1    AN ACT concerning animals.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
5Transparent and Responsible Antibiotic Use Act.
 
6    Section 5. Findings; purpose.
7    (a) The General Assembly finds and declares that:
8        (1) In 2019, deaths associated with drug-resistant
9    infections ranked as the third-leading cause of death
10    globally.
11        (2) Experts warn that without swift action to reduce
12    antibiotic use, drug-resistant infections could claim 10
13    million lives across the world annually by 2050.
14        (3) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has
15    stated that, "You and I are living in a time when some
16    miracle drugs [antibiotics] no longer perform miracles and
17    families are being ripped apart by a microscopic enemy.
18    The time for action is now and we can be part of the
19    solution".
20        (4) The issue of antibiotic overuse, whether on humans
21    or animals, is a significant and urgent human health
22    matter.
23        (5) The United States Food and Drug Administration and

 

 

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1    the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated
2    that there is a definitive link between the use of
3    antibiotics on industrial farms and the crisis of
4    antibiotic resistance in humans.
5        (6) National targets are in place to reduce antibiotic
6    use in human health care, and hospitals that participate
7    in Medicare and Medicaid are required to implement
8    antibiotic stewardship programs and collect antibiotic use
9    data. That level of focus and accountability doesn't exist
10    in agriculture.
11        (7) Nearly two-thirds of medically important
12    antibiotics sold in the United States are given to
13    food-producing animals, often to compensate for the
14    effects of unsanitary and overcrowded living conditions.
15        (8) Many of the antibiotics provided to food-producing
16    animals are identical to, or from the same family as,
17    drugs used in human medicine to cure serious diseases;
18    therefore, bacterial resistance to these drugs poses a
19    threat to human health because these drugs may not work to
20    treat human disease when needed.
21        (9) Producers often use medically important
22    antibiotics to compensate for industrial farming
23    conditions. The World Health Organization recommends
24    "complete restriction of use of all classes of medically
25    important antimicrobials in food-producing animals for
26    prevention of infectious diseases that have not yet been

 

 

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1    clinically diagnosed".
2        (10) Passing this Act is necessary to protect the
3    health and safety of Illinois consumers from antibiotic
4    resistant bacteria spreading through the food supply.
5    (b) The purpose of this Act is to protect public health by
6preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics now and for future
7generations by reducing antibiotic use in food animal
8production.
 
9    Section 10. Definitions. In this Act:
10    "Department" means the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
11    "Disease control" means the use of a medically important
12antibiotic to stop the transmission of a documented disease or
13infection present in:
14        (1) a group of animals in contact with each other; or
15        (2) a barn or equivalent animal housing unit.
16    "Disease prevention" means the administration of a
17medically important antibiotic to an animal or multiple
18animals in the absence of contact with animals with a
19clinically diagnosed disease for the purpose of avoiding
20illness.
21    "Food-producing animal" means:
22        (1) cattle, swine, or poultry, regardless of whether
23    the specific animal is raised for the purpose of producing
24    food for human consumption; or
25        (2) any type of animal that the Department identifies

 

 

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1    by rule as livestock typically used to produce food for
2    human consumption.
3    "Medically important antibiotic" means a drug that is
4composed in whole or in part of a drug from an antimicrobial
5class that is categorized as critically important, highly
6important, or important in the World Health Organization list
7of Critically Important Antimicrobials for Human Medicine (5th
8Revision, 2017), or a subsequent revision or successor
9document issued by the World Health Organization.
10    "Producer" means a person or entity that establishes
11management and production standards for the maintenance, care,
12and raising of food-producing animals and that:
13        (1) operates a business raising food-producing animals
14    that are used to produce any product group sold by a
15    grocer; or
16        (2) purchases or otherwise obtains live food-producing
17    animals that it slaughters, or sells for slaughter, for
18    production of any product group sold by a grocer.
19    "Disease treatment" means administering a medically
20important antibiotic to infected individual animals or
21populations of animals to resolve clinical signs of infection
22or illness.
23    "Growth maintenance" means administering a medically
24important antibiotic to food-producing animals for the purpose
25of maintaining weight.
26    "Veterinary feed directive (VFD)" means a written

 

 

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1(nonverbal) statement issued by a licensed veterinarian in the
2course of the veterinarian's professional practice that orders
3the use of a VFD drug or combination VFD drug in or on an
4animal feed. This written statement authorizes the client (the
5owner of the animal or animals or other caretaker) to obtain
6and use animal feed bearing or containing a VFD drug or
7combination VFD drug to treat the client's animals only in
8accordance with the conditions for use approved, conditionally
9approved, or indexed by the Food and Drug Administration.
10    "Veterinary feed directive (VFD) drug" is a drug intended
11for use in or on animal feed which is limited by an approved
12application filed pursuant to Section 512(b) of the Federal
13Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, a conditionally approved
14application filed pursuant to Section 571 of the Federal Food,
15Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or an index listing under Section 572
16of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to use under the
17professional supervision of a licensed veterinarian. Use of
18animal feed bearing or containing a VFD drug must be
19authorized by a lawful veterinary feed directive.
20    "Feed distributor" means any person who distributes a
21medicated feed containing a VFD drug to another person. Such
22other person may be another distributor or the
23client-recipient of a VFD.
 
24    Section 15. Collecting and reporting antibiotic use data.
25    (a) This Section applies to the collection and reporting

 

 

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1of antibiotic use data on or after January 1, 2025.
2    (b) Feed distributors shall report to the Department all
3Veterinary Feed Directives associated with medicated feed
4distributed to producers along with associated feed
5distribution records. The distribution records shall indicate:
6        (1) the rate of inclusion of active ingredients;
7        (2) the dates the feed was distributed; and
8        (3) the total volume of feed shipped to clients (final
9    users) for each VFD.
10    (c) The Department shall compile data submitted by feed
11distributors on antibiotic use into a publicly available
12report issued annually. In each annual report, the following
13summary information on distributed medicated feeds collected
14from the aforementioned feed mills shall be included:
15        (1) the quantity of antibiotic active ingredients
16    present in distributed feeds;
17        (2) the indications or reasons for use of each
18    medicated feed product;
19        (3) the type of use such as disease treatment, disease
20    control, disease prevention, and growth maintenance;
21        (4) the duration of use;
22        (5) the animal species and animal production class
23    receiving the feed; and
24        (6) the approximate number of animals receiving
25    antibiotics.
 

 

 

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1    Section 20. Setting targets for reducing antibiotic use.
2The Department shall set a target for reducing the use of
3medically important antibiotics in food-producing animals by
450%. The Department shall:
5        (1) use the first full year of antibiotic use reported
6    as its baseline;
7        (2) begin to measure progress against that reduction
8    target annually;
9        (3) set a deadline for meeting that reduction target
10    within 5 years after the first antibiotic use data is
11    reported; and
12        (4) work with relevant stakeholders in implementing
13    antibiotic stewardship practices that will result in
14    overall antibiotic use reductions.
 
15    Section 25. Violations. The Attorney General has exclusive
16authority to enforce the provisions of this Act. Each
17violation of this Act is punishable by a civil penalty not to
18exceed $1,000 to be paid to the Department and deposited into
19the Agricultural Premium Fund in the State treasury. The
20Attorney General may seek injunctive relief to prevent further
21violations of this Act.