The Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming has applauded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA for limiting the use of cephalosporins in food animal production, on Thursday.

While cephalosporins are vital treatments for children suffering from infection and important for treating people suffering from bacterial meningitis and infections of the bone, urinary tract, and upper respiratory system, as well as those associated with cancer, the drug is also used to treat some infections in food animals.

But multiple studies have shown that the use of these antibiotics in farm animals is linked to the emergence of cephalosporin-resistant bacteria that can infect people.

In other words, people can become immune to the antibiotics when consuming livestock that has been subjected to the antibiotics, which can cause the infection to grow and outcomes can be as bad as fatal.

"This restriction is a victory for human health, as it will help ensure we can still rely on cephalosporins to treat life-threatening infections today and in the future," said Laura Rogers, project director of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming.

"Today's action is a good first step and we encourage FDA to issue guidelines expeditiously that restrict the overuse and misuse of other critical antibiotics on industrial farms," said Rogers.

The authors explained that the rule will apply to such extralabel use of cephalosporins in meat and poultry production because if cephalosporins continue to be overused on industrial farms it will lose their effectiveness in humans and can lead to more deaths and higher health care costs.