Feds pull approval of poultry antibiotic

The Food and Drug Administration is about to prohibit poultry farmers from treating chickens and turkeys with the antibiotic enrofloxacin. Use of the antibiotic, whose trade name is Baytril, is leading to the emergence of microbes in the birds’ meat that resist several antibiotics used to treat food poisoning in people, the agency says.

On the market for 9 years, the drug has become decreasingly effective against Campylobacter, which causes gut-wrenching illness in people.