Growth-promoting Products Approved by the FDA Since 1986

How did we increase beef production per animal by some 80 pecent in 50 years? No one single factor was responsible for this trend. Rather, it was the accumulation of many technological changes that have combined over a period of years to give us this more efficient beef production system.

Here is a list of some of the major technological contributors:

1. Pharmaceuticals and other animal-health products and programs
   1. Antibiotics
   2. Implants
   3. Ionophores
   4. Repartitioning agents
   5. Parasiticides
   6. Vaccines
   7. Estrus regulation
   8. USDA disease/pest eradication programs
2. Genetics
   1. Beef
   2. Dairy
3. Nutrition
   1. Breeding cattle
   2. Pasture supplementation
   3. Stocker and backgrounder operations
   4. Feedlots
4. Grain yields and feed costs

Underlying this list is the fact that the cattle business is a market-oriented, profit-seeking and price/cost-driven industry that is incredibly competitive. The result has been that cost-reducing technology is sought out and adopted by the industry, especially the feedlot segment. Also, because input suppliers see a large and accepting business for new technology for the cattle industry, significant incentives are present to discover and market new products that save cost and resources in the beef production system.

While the incentives for technology adoption are high, the availability of new pharmaceutical technology has been limited by high costs and long review times for the approval process of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. In recent years, the number of innovative, new drugs for animal agriculture has been a slow trickle. Although cattle have received a high share of the approvals, the total number of truly new animal drugs that have been approved has been less than one per year in recent years. No new compounds were approved in 2000, 2001 or 2003.

New Chemical Entities Approved by FDA/CVM
For Food-producing Animals, 1986-2003

Fifty Years of Pharmaceutical Technology and its Impact on the Beef We Provide to Consumers

Since 1955, technology has increased the consumption of grain-fed beef by 71 percent and decreased the consumption of “non-fed” beef by 65 percent. This dramatic shift has significantly improved beef quality and the consumer’s overall beef-eating experience.

In the past 50 years, beef production per head of cattle in the U.S. herd has increased by more than 80 percent. The United States has become the most efficient beef producer in the world.

Technological improvements in the past 50 years have decreased the size of our total cattle herd. Without technology, we would need a beef herd of more than 180 million head to produce the 2004 beef supply instead of the current herd of 95+ million head of cattle. The environmental and land use implication of doubling the herd size would be significant.

To download “50 Years of Pharmaceutical Technology and Its Impact on the Beef We Provide Consumers” white paper, click here.