Monday, June 06, 2005
ANIMAL FEED TO BLAME FOR ANTIBIOTIC RESISTENT BACTERIA
Every worry that maybe those antibiotics meant to get you well might not work? According to Environmental Defense, overuse of antibiotics in agriculture is contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten human health.
Antibiotics are added to feed not to treat sick animals, but rather to promote faster growth or prevent disease.
"With antibiotics, the more you use them, the faster you lose them," said Environmental Defense senior scientist Rebecca Goldburg, Ph.D., co-author of new report. "That's because bacteria become resistant in response to being exposed to antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is a serious and growing threat to human health, so it's just plain foolish to be feeding vast quantities of antibiotics to chickens, pigs, and beef cattle."
"Studies suggest that people living in areas with intensive use of antibiotics as feed additives are at greater risk of contracting antibiotic-resistant infections," said Ellen Silbergeld, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Health Services at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
According to the report around 90 percent of the 26.5 million pounds of antibiotics estimated to be used in the United States as feed additives each year - seven times the amount used in human medicine nationwide - occurs in 23 states.
Environmental Defense said its report, "Resistant Bugs and Antibiotic Drugs: Local Estimates of Antibiotics in Agricultural Feed and Animal Waste," is the first study to provide state and county level estimates of the quantities of antibiotics used as feed additives for chicken, hogs and beef cattle, along with estimates for antibiotics in animal waste.
Go to Spero News to read the rest of the story...
