HOW SAFE IS ANTIBIOTIC USE IN LIVESTOCK? (Short Version)


In the 1950’s it was discovered that feeding livestock low levels ofantibiotics helped to fatten them before being slaughtered. Thepractice is still widely used today. But the increase in resistantbacteria found in humans is leading many experts to question the safetyof using antibiotics on the farm. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’sMark Brush has more:

Transcript

In the 1950’s it was discovered that feeding livestock low
levels of antibiotics helped to fatten them before being slaughtered.
The practice is still widely used today. But the increase in resistant
bacteria found in humans is leading many experts to question the
safety of using antibiotics on the farm. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mark Brush has more.


The Food and Drug Administration tried to
restrict the use of antibiotics as growth
promotants more than two decades ago.

Drug producers and farm groups fought the
FDA’s efforts saying that the evidence linking
antibiotic use on the farm to human illness
was lacking.

Dr. Stuart Levy is a professor of microbiology
at Tufts University. he says proving that
human illness is linked to antibiotic use in
farm animals is difficult.

“When you use the same antibiotics for people and for animals it’s
very hard to know exactly where that resistant bacteria came
from… all you can do is postulate that if there are all these
resistant strains that are being propagated on the farm. Then
couldn’t it possibly be a contributor the problem in people. And
many of us have said yes.

A federal interagency task force is developing
an action plan to combat the resistance
problem.

Officials hope to have the final draft
completed within a year.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark
Brush.