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Doctors routinely warn patients that antibiotics should be used only to treat bacterial infections, at the proper dosage, and for the full course of treatment because failure to follow these rules increases the likelihood that some of the bacteria will survive and mutate to become drug resistant. Yet many large producers of meat and poultry feed antibiotics to their healthy food animals simply to offset the effects of overcrowding and poor sanitation, as well as to promote faster growth.
In fact, up to 70 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States go to healthy food animals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all testified before Congress that there was a definitive link between the routine, non-therapeutic uses of antibiotics in food animal production and the crisis of antibiotic resistance in humans. This position is supported by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other leading medical groups who all warn that the injudicious use of antibiotics in food animals presents a serious and growing threat to human health because the practice creates new strains of dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
For more information, visit Pew's campaign on human health and industrial farming.
Feb 07, 2013 - The same antibiotics used to treat sick people are also given to healthy animals — in much greater numbers — to make them grow faster and to compensate for overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. These practices are contributing to the emergence of drug-resistant superbugs that make infections more difficult and costly to treat. In 2011, more antibiotics were sold for use in meat and poultry production than ever before.
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Sep 07, 2010 - Shelley Hearne, managing director of the Pew Health Group, explores the comprehensive policy framework needed to preserve the efficacy of existing antibiotics and spur innovation of new drugs.
Apr 29, 2008 - The current industrial farm animal production system often poses unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals themselves, according to an extensive two and a half year examination conducted by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.
Read: Summary View: Full Report (Adobe PDF)
Jan 30, 2008 - The problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is growing in the United States and worldwide. This report explores the scope of the AMR problem and what can or should be done about AMR from the standpoint of animal agriculture.
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