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Very promising news about antibiotic use in farm animals has come from the Food and Drug Administration. The problem of resistance—the tendency of bacteria to fight back against antibiotic drugs—has been growing for decades, fueled by overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human health, as well as widespread and often indiscriminate use in farm animals. But new data shows the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture has taken a marked downward turn.

As FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb noted Dec. 18, this is a costly public-health problem, with an estimated 2 million Americans suffering from antibiotic-resistant infections every year, leading to 23,000 deaths. Mr. Gottlieb correctly pointed out that it is impossible to outrace resistance, but efforts must be made to “slow its pace and reduce its impact on both human and animal health.� Otherwise, antibiotics, the “miracle drugs� of the 20th century, will become useless, and a foundation of modern medicine could crumble.