An interesting followup to the recent discussion about antibiotic-resistant bacteria: Now scientists are confirming that the primary cause of “superbugs” is excessive antibiotic use among farm animals.
An article in the Boston Sunday Globe summarized the concern of scientists from the U.S., Canada, and northern Europe about excessive use of antibiotics “to help animals grow slightly faster—and to compensate for crowded, often unsanitary conditions on industrial-scale farms.”
Consider this amazing statistic: about 70 per cent of all antibiotic usage in the U.S. is for farm animals. Scientists from the U.S., Canada, and northern Europe are recommending a ban on using antibiotic feed additives to promote livestock growth, and also that farmers only have access to the drugs by prescription. Apparently several European countries have already done so, without adverse effects on farmers.
A recent study from Johns Hopkins University found what many of us suspected: the use of antibiotics only makes money for the pharmaceutical companies—definitely not for farmers.
Now there’s legislation being introduced to begin withdrawing antibiotics from widespread use…because the federal Food and Drug Administration can’t get its act together to get these drugs off the market. And amazingly, farmers dependent on the antibiotics are expected to be able to adjust just fine, by using traditional drug-free farming practices. It should be interesting to see how hard Big Pharma fights this effort.
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