80% of U.S. Antibiotics Go to Farm Animals

[phantom power]

Approximately 80% of antibiotics sold in the United States each year are used on farm animals, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and that has food and health advocates alarmed. The FDA estimates that 29 million pounds of antibiotics a year are given to U.S. livestock.

The FDA released the information at the request of U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter (D-New York), who plans to reintroduce legislation that would limit the drugging of animals in order to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics in humans.

“Today I confirmed an alarming number that should shock all of us: 4 out of 5 antibiotics sold in this country were for use on animals, many of whom are not even sick, and that is dangerous to all of us,” said Slaughter.

As journalist Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA, explains: “The reason why antibiotic use on farms is a concern, of course, is because such use stimulates the emergence of drug-resistant organisms that move off the farm in animals, in groundwater, in dust, on the wind and in the systems and on the clothes of those who work there, and makes new resistance factors available to be swapped among bacteria.”

http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/80_Percent_of_US_Antibiotics_Go_to_Farm_Animals_110304

[Fridays Child]

1. I had this argument with my doctor...

...when she declined to give me antibiotics for a bronchial infection. I told her that, compared to the use of antibiotics on farm animals, even if doctors were trying to over-prescribe them for their patients, they could never come close to what's happening on factory farms. I'm not sure that she believed me.

[txlibdem]

7. Print out the article and bring it to her.

Doctors can't know everything about all topics. I'm sure she was trying to do the right thing (avoiding the creation of a resistant strain of bacterium). But show her the article.

Sheesh. I was just thinking how much toxic or otherwise harmful stuff they put in all our food (processed included). I wish I had the stomach for being a vegetarian!

[ensho]

2. no one should eat these animals

if they value their health

pharma barons however love having their pockets stuffed with money by animal raisers

[DirkGently]

3. Insanity.

[azul]

4. Sick sick sick. Who is their doctor?

"many of whom are not even sick" -many are?

And by eating all these drugs second hand, hungry people are being treated too. Is that malpractice enough for attorneys?

Or do we just need better labeling, so that these drugs are available for self-treatment in meats?

[glinda]

5. When I am sick, I buy a regular chicken for soup and get my antibiotics that way.

[Gregorian]

6. There are so many more important things than Michelle Bachman. This is one.

I don't know what to say. But I want to recommend this, because it IS important.