The paucity of data on antibiotic use in livestock and poultry in the United States makes it hard for scientists to assess the relationship with antibiotic resistance (Nature 499, 398–400; 2013). More comprehensive data need to be collected and made freely available to bring the United States in line with countries such as Denmark, where antibiotic use can be traced to individual animals.

The only US antibiotic data available are the sales figures that drug companies report to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which are published as total sales for each antibiotic class. Such broad aggregated data are of limited value, beyond confirming the extensive use of antibiotics in animals reared for food.

In February 2011, the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) in Washington DC attempted to obtain more detailed antibiotics data from the FDA under the Freedom of Information Act. The FDA denied the request, claiming that these commercial data are confidential. In December 2012, GAP sued the FDA for access to the data (the case is ongoing).

Given that the misuse of antibiotics erodes their efficacy, there is an urgent need for greater transparency over their use. We contend that the FDA, as a public-health agency, is responsible to the public, not to the industry it regulates. It is imperative that more antibiotic data be released so that evidence-based public-health policies can be developed to combat antibiotic resistance.