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Antibiotic Resistance in Agriculture
- 2. WHAT IS THE ISSUE Should antibiotics be used in livestock when antibiotic resistance is such a prominent concern in our population? Antibiotic resistance related to 20,000 deaths 2 million Americans with a drug-resistant infection every year Enormous rise in superbugs Within 30 years, antibiotic resistance will be the leading cause of death
- 3. USE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN FARMING PRACTICES Almost all farm animals are given regular levels of antibiotics in their food and water Purpose of antibiotic use in farm animals is not to treat sickness 80% of all antibiotics produced in the U.S. are used in food animal production
- 4. WHO’S INVOLVED FDA: U.S. Food and Drug Administration WHO: World Health Organization USDA: United States Department of Agriculture FSIS: Food Safety and Inspection Service
- 5. ARGUMENT Using low doses of antibiotics naturally selects for resistance Bacteria can also exchange resistant traits with different species that have never been exposed to the antibiotic As resistance becomes more common, doctors must use more dangerous and more expensive drugs to treat
- 6. CONCERN The farming industry has become reliant on the use of antibiotics Animals are now: Weaned earlier Fed unnatural diets
- 7. RESPONSE Farmers deny that their use of antibiotics has any correlation with superbugs Several major companies launched various farm antibiotic initiatives, including Perdue Foods, Tyson Food, Cargill and McDonald’s McDonald’s recently announced they will source chicken “raised without antibiotics that are important to human medicine.”
- 8. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SO FAR FDA required animal drug makers to release proof that their products were safe regarding antibiotic resistance Guidance for Industry volunteer plan in 2016 Requires a veterinarian’s order for antibiotic usage for farm animals European Union has banned the use of antibiotics for growth promotion. Consumers are demanding for meat raised without routine use of antibiotics
- 9. POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS Increase public awareness of food companies that use antibiotics Restrict antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention without diagnosis
- 10. FINAL STANCE • The use of antibiotics in animals needs to be prohibited unless an animal has a bacterial infection • The use of antibiotics in agriculture settings are directly responsible for the increase in superbugs • We should drastically reduce use of antibiotics on food animals and eliminate use altogether for growth promotion or disease prevention in healthy animals
- 11. WORKS CITED • Antibiotic Resistance | Challenges in Food Safety | Food Safety | CDC. (2020, February 11). https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/challenges/antibiotic-resistance.html • Health and Nutrition. (n.d.). A Greener World. Retrieved April 14, 2020, from https://agreenerworld.org/challenges-and-opportunities/human-health/ • Hicks, L. A., Taylor, T. H., & Hunkler, R. J. (2013). U.S. Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing, 2010. New England Journal of Medicine, 368(15), 1461–1462. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc1212055 • Halloran, J. (2012, November 9). The overuse of antibiotics in food animals threatens public health. Consumer union. Policy & action for consumer reports. https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/press_release/the-overuse-of-antibiotics-in-food-animals-threatens-public-health-2/ • Hoelzer, K. (2020, March 12). Antibiotic Resistance And Animal Consumption: The Case For Duration Limits In Food-Producing Animals | Health Affairs. Health Affairs. http://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200306.985969/full/ • Kirbis, A., & Krizman, M. (2015). Spread of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria from Food of Animal Origin to Humans and Vice Versa. Procedia Food Science, 5, 148–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profoo.2015.09.043 • Nelson, D. W., Moore, J. E., & Rao, J. R. (2019). Antimicrobial resistance (AMR): Significance to food quality and safety. Food Quality and Safety, 3(1), 15–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/fqsafe/fyz003 • Sandoiu, Ana. (2018, November 9). The effects of antibiotic use in animals on human health and the drug resistance crisis. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323639 • Sims, Tamika. (2017, November 2). Animal Antibiotics in Food Production: What You Should Know. IFIC Foundation. https://foodinsight.org/animal-antibiotics-in-food-production-what- you-should-know/ • Stop using antibiotics in healthy animals to preserve their effectiveness. (2017, November 7). https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/07-11-2017-stop-using-antibiotics-in-healthy- animals-to-prevent-the-spread-of-antibiotic-resistance • Swain, Marian. (2015, July 29). What you need to know about antibiotics in livestock. Grist. https://grist.org/food/what-you-need-to-know-about-antibiotics-in-livestock/ • Tang, K. L., Caffrey, N. P., Nóbrega, D. B., Cork, S. C., Ronksley, P. E., Barkema, H. W., Polachek, A. J., Ganshorn, H., Sharma, N., Kellner, J. D., & Ghali, W. A. (2017). Restricting the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals and its associations with antibiotic resistance in food-producing animals and human beings: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet.
Editor's Notes
- Antibiotic resistance is responsible for more than 20,000 deaths in the United States every year. More than 2 million Americans develop a drug-resistant infection every year. The continued use of antibiotics in farming has led to a dramatic rise in superbugs (antibiotic-resistant bacteria). Researchers predict that within 30 years, antibiotic resistance will surpass cancer for the leading cause of death globally (CDC, 2020).
- Antibiotics are used to help farmers keep large quantities of animals in close confinement without the risk of disease outbreaks, and to increase productivity. The United States uses more antibiotics per pound of meat produced than any other nation. The USDA estimates 80% of all antibiotics produced in the U.S. are used in food animal production, which included over 32 million pounds just in the year 2013 (Halloran, 2012).
- The FDA permits and prohibits certain classes of antibiotics, usage of antibiotics, and the USDA provides for food safety regulations pertaining to agriculture. WHO is recommending that farmers and the food industry stop using antibiotics routinely to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) conducts a monitoring program to ensure that antibiotics are effectively eliminated from animals’ systems and that no unsafe residues are detected in meat and poultry (Tang, 2017).
- When bacteria are exposed to low doses of antibiotics, some get stronger and harder to kill and these stronger bacteria can quickly spread between animals and farms. Bacteria can also exchange resistant traits with different species that have never been exposed to the antibiotic. As a result, some dangerous strains of bacteria found in animals, such as E. coli, salmonella and S. aureus, have mutated and are now resistant to multiple antibiotics. If you get infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of E. coli, salmonella or S. aureus, what was once a low-risk, easy-to-treat disease can quickly develop into a life-threatening illness (Hoelzer, 2020).
- Baby pigs can be weaned earlier because antibiotics can control the stomach bugs that inevitably occur. Cattle can be fed unnatural high grain-based diets because antibiotics control the problems such as liver abscesses and lameness that these diets cause. Pig producers add antibiotics to the feed of older pigs even after numerous studies show they are not providing any benefit. It’s more about economics than about health, of both the animals and people (Swain, 2015).
- For decades, the U.S. industrial farming lobby denied any causal link between antibiotics in intensive farming systems and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration introduced voluntary recommendations to phase out the use of antibiotics as growth promoters and require veterinary approval of antibiotics in feed and water. In May 2015, Walmart became the first major retailer to introduce voluntary guidelines limiting suppliers to only using antibiotics to treat and prevent disease (and not for growth promotion). Examining this further, however, reveals the human drugs they intend to prohibit from their supply chain are not presently approved for use in food animals. In other words, McDonald’s is prohibiting drugs that would most likely never be used in food animal production anyway. Furthermore, the fast food giant’s plans do nothing to address the continued use of antimicrobial drugs identified as critically important to human medicine and approved for food animal use. (“Health and Nutrition,” n.d.)
- In the 1970s, the FDA required animal drug makers to show their products were safe with respect to antibiotic resistance, but then failed to take any action when the drug makers could not do it. In December 2016, the FDA implemented a volunteer plan called Guidance for Industry to reduce antibiotic overuse on farm by getting drug makers to stop selling medically important antibiotics for growth promotion, and to also require a veterinarian's order for antibiotic usage in the food and water for farm animals. Despite this new guidance to the industry, the continued use of antibiotics in animals that are not sick to compensate for inappropriate diets and unsanitary farm conditions is still allowed. It also allows a veterinarian to write a single order for all animals on a farm to be given antibiotics for up to six months (Health and nutrition). Since 2006, the European Union has banned the use of antibiotics for growth promotion. Consumers are also driving the demand for meat raised without routine use of antibiotics, with some major food chains adopting “antibiotic-free” policies for their meat supplies (Stop using antibiotics in healthy animals to preserve their effectiveness, 2017).
- The World Health Organization strongly recommends an overall reduction in the use of all classes of medically important antibiotics in food-producing animals, including complete restriction of these antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention without diagnosis. Healthy animals should only receive antibiotics to prevent disease if it has been diagnosed in other animals in the same flock, herd, or fish population. Where possible, sick animals should be tested to determine the most effective and prudent antibiotic to treat their specific infection. Antibiotics used in animals should be selected from those WHO has listed as being “least important” to human health, and not from those classified as “highest priority critically important” (Stop using antibiotics in healthy animals to preserve their effectiveness, 2017).
- In 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the CDC all testified before Congress that there is a connection between the routine use of antibiotics for meat production and the declining effectiveness of antibiotics for people. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, Director of the CDC, noted that “there is strong scientific evidence of a link between antibiotic use in food animals and antibiotic resistance in humans” (Halloran, 2012). It is for these reasons that the public health community and FDA have been proposing to limit use of antibiotics on livestock for more than 30 years.