Washington -- The Centers for Disease Control on Monday confirmed a link between routine use of antibiotics in livestock and growing bacterial resistance that is killing at least 23,000 people a year. "Widespread use of antibiotics in agriculture has resulted in increased resistance in infections in humans," CDC Director Thomas Frieden said. The pharmaceutical and livestock industries have long disputed any such linkage. The link between overuse of antibiotics in livestock and microbial resistance has been suspected since the 1960s, but Congress, at the behest of the pharmaceutical and livestock industries, has blocked efforts by the Food and Drug Administration to scale back their use. "If you have a healthy cow foraged on grass, and if they are in a clean field environment, your cows are not going to get sick," Francis Scarpulla, owner of Lost Coast Farms said. "When you cram them into huge feedlots, they start getting sick because there are too many of them in too small a space."
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 13:31:39 +0000
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