The level of corruption and ineptitude at the USDA under Secretary Vilsack has become so toxic that it seems the only way for a consumer group to get it to pay attention to public health is with a lawsuit.
Currently, 80% of antibiotics sold in US are added to livestock feed to promote growth and to prevent livestock from getting sick due to overcrowded, unsanitary conditions on factory farms. This has been a major contributor to the growth of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria which has led to a massive public health crisis.
CBS News reports on the CSPI lawsuit:
The group Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, to try to force the USDA to treat antibiotic-resistant strains of salmonella as adulterants, which would prevent the sale and distribution of tainted meat.
"USDA takes action only after people start becoming ill from these life-threatening antibiotic-resistant superbugs," said CSPI Food Safety Director Caroline Smith DeWaal in a statement. "It is time for USDA to declare these dangerous resistant strains as adulterants and then require industry to conduct aggressive testing to keep meat and poultry contaminated with these strains out of the food supply, as it does with dangerous strains of E. coli."
[...]
The lawsuit is CSPI's latest effort to get the USDA to respond to a 2011 petition, which names four strains of drug-resistant salmonella — Heidelberg, Newport, Hadar and Typhimurium. Those strains have been implicated in dozens of outbreaks and hundreds of illnesses, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tell Congress: End the Use of Antibiotics at Factory Farms!