European Union antibiotic growth promoters

Oxytetracycline is a broad-spectrum antibiotic, which has been used worldwide in veterinary medicine and in aquaculture for the prevention and treatment of disease and as feed additives to promote growth. The maximum residue limits (MRLs) of OTC and relative substances as described by the US Food and Drug Administration [66] and European Union [67] are presented in Table 4. 

The exact mechanisms of how pharmaceuticals, especially antibiotics, exert growth promotion attributes in fivestock are not clearly known, but it is suspected that the antibiotics ease minor infections that do not make the animals sick, ultimately increasing feed utilization (Ferber, 2003). In practice, most of the antibiotics are used for both purposes. In the European Union, the nontherapeutic use of most antibiotics for agriculture has been banned, leaving only four compounds, that is, avilamycin, monesin, flavophsophofipol, and salinomycin, in use for nontherapeutic... 

Eveminomycin (13), although promising, may have been a victim of antibiotic ovemse. Another oligosaccharide, avilamycin, which is structurally similar, has been used as a growth promoter for food animals in the European Union. The use of avilamycin as a growth promoter has created a reservoir of isolates with decreased susceptibility to eveminomycin... 

In Denmark, there were in 1994 some 24 tonnes of vancomycin derivatives used in animal health, and only 24 kilograms for the treatment of human diseases. Later, the Danish Government prohibited the use of vancomycin derivatives as feedstock additives the European Union followed suit in 1998. All classes of antibiotics, which find use in human medicine, are no longer allowed as growth promoters in livestock. 

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