Environmental News 3.10.13 Part III: Just Another Reason Feedlots are a Scourge! According to a CDC report released last month, more than two million Americans a year get infections that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23 000 die as a result. While excessive prescriptions in human medicine play a large role, CDC says modern farming practices significantly fuel the crisis. “Much of antibiotic use in animals is unnecessary and inappropriate and makes everyone less safe,” the CDC stated. In the 1950s, scientists discovered that small, persistent doses of antibiotics made animals grow faster and bigger, and later, more antibiotics were added to the regimen to guard against the crowded, unsanitary conditions of the factory farm. Today, federal regulators estimate that U.S. livestock consume nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics a year. Scientists have seen trouble brewing for decades and though the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed withdrawing penicillin and tetracycline for use in farm animals nearly 40 years ago – nothing has been done. “It is time to put a stop to big agribusinesses doling out pharmaceuticals to healthy animals just because it is better for their bottom line. Antibiotic use in food-animals must be limited to prevent the inadvertent creation of superbugs that are too powerful for our own medicine,” said microbiologist and congresswoman, Louise Slaughter. She has drafted the PMTA (Preservation of Antibiotics Treatment Act) that would stop routine use of antibiotics on food animals, and, her act is backed by some 450 organisations including WHO and the American Medical Association. For years, several groups have been petitioning FDA to enact the same measures, but the agency has resisted and former FDA commissioner, David Kessler said that industry won’t allow reforms. There is “…more than enough scientific evidence to justify curbing the rampant use of antibiotics for livestock, yet the food and drug industries are not only fighting proposed legislation to reduce these practices, they also oppose collecting the data.” Said Kessler. Meanwhile, according to figures Slaughter has confirmed with the FDA, 80% of antibiotics sold in the United States are used one animals grown for food and in February 2013, the federal government reported that more than 81% of ground turkey, 70% of pork chops and 55% of ground beef may contain antibiotic-resistant superbugs. theepochtimes/n3/304492-factory-farms-fueling-antibiotic-resistance-cdc-report/
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 22:15:17 +0000
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