In an issue as important as antimicrobial resistance, there has
been pressure by members of Congress to reach a legislative
solution for antimicrobial resistance, according to Phil Durst,
senior Extension educator at Michigan State University. Several
different bills have been introduced including the Preservation
of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA). This act would
restrict “medically important” drugs from being used for “non-
therapeutic” use in food animals. Durst says this is just one
response of those who believe that the solution to antimicrobial
resistance is as easy as legislation. In this final part of a
four-part series on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), he looks at
a few of the areas of research to reduce the proliferation of
AMR. “If antimicrobial resistance is in fact caused by a complex
set of factors of which we don’t fully understand, then it is
completely possible that a law like this (PAMTA) would have no
effect on the problem, and yet create problems of its own,” he
observes. “Th