Drug-resistant bacteria spreads when farmers mix antibiotics with livestock feed, which improves livestock immune systems and stimulates the animal’s growth. The drug-resistant bacteria circulation can become a serious danger to humans. It causes some viruses and diseases, such as MRSA and E.coli to become untreatable. Many want to ban animal antibiotics altogether, but there’s a need to do more research. Banning all antibiotics has consequences that deserve further evaluation before such a huge and inhumane decision is made. Agricultural antibiotic use leads to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can affect public health, but banning animal antibiotic usage can affect many pets, household health and common veterinary medicine styles.
The Nature article “Pig Out” argues that, “the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals is a global issue. Human propensity for trade and travel ensures that resistant bacteria spreads easily around the world, so as long as any one country pumps its pigs and poultry full of the drugs, everyone is at risk.” The author explains how Denmark reduced the use of antibiotics in their livestock by 60%. The country created surveillance systems that monitored the use of antibiotics and limited the amount of money that veterinarians could make by selling antibiotics. In addition to reducing antibiotic usage, the program also increased pork production by 50%. Denmark accomplished this goal by informing the public about the issue and continues to keep them informed with current data. The Danish Agriculture and Food Council controls almost all the Danish farmers. This council keeps track of antibiotic usage and its effects and then uses this data to keep the regulations active. The author continues to acknowledge that the Food and Drug Administration knows antibiotics are being used regularly in livestock and they also have a way to monitor the usage, but the system is not being used. The author feels that, “researchers should be able to survey ten farms in ten US states, for example, and extrapolate those data nationally to build up an accurate picture of antibiotic use.” The research needs to be reported in order to raise awareness.
Drug-resistant bacteria cannot be stopped or killed by antibiotics. Antibiotics were created to kill bacteria and now that some strains of bacteria are becoming immune to the antibiotics, the diseases caused by these strong bacteria are more dangerous to humans and animals than ever before. Livestock is spreading these drug-resistant bacteria because the farmers are placing more and more antibiotics into the feed. The author of the editorial “Save Antibiotics for People, Not Poultry” said that humans put their lives on the line by eating the meat, so that farmers make a better profit because the livestock can grow bigger and better. The author of “Harm to Others: The Social Cost of Antibiotics in Agriculture” says the animals are “prisoners” and that they do not have the choice to eat the feed with or without antibiotics.
Banning antibiotics all together is a very harsh and irrational idea. Research and monitoring on this subject has been completed. Testing has been completed on the amount of antibiotics being placed in livestock feed and data has been collected to determine how and why this usage of antibiotics causes the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. But the research is not enough to make such a huge decision such as banning the use of antibiotics in animals. More examples of how it’s affecting humans, along with true evidence that antibiotics in livestock feeds are causing the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, should be provided to the public.
To what extent would animals be affected by the banning of antibiotics for agricultural usage? It makes us ask: does this pertain to just livestock such as pigs, chickens, cows, etc. or does it include any type of animal such as household pets? Banning antibiotics must be specific to livestock animals and only antibiotics sold to farmers by veterinarians should be banned. If animal antibiotics are banned, then veterinarian medicine will be greatly affected. Veterinarians will not be able to provide an owner of a cat or dog antibiotics in order to help them recover from a sickness or disease. Stopping veterinarians from doing their job of healing animals is inhumane. Dr. Hurd, the author of “ Commentary: Meat without Drugs Could Be Inhumane,” explains that animals on organic farms are not treated when they’re sick and no antibiotics are given to help their illness. This is wrong; medicine should be available to cure animals of their illness just the same as humans when they are sick. Organic meats are more expensive than standard meats; if antibiotics were banned would the nation, as a whole, want to pay for the more expensive meat?
Drug-resistant bacteria cannot be stopped or killed by antibiotics. Antibiotics were created to kill bacteria and now that some strains of bacteria are becoming immune to the antibiotics, the diseases caused by these strong bacteria are more dangerous to humans and animals than ever before. Livestock is spreading these drug-resistant bacteria because the farmers are placing more and more antibiotics into the feed. The author of the editorial “Save Antibiotics for People, Not Poultry” said that humans put their lives on the line by eating the meat, so that farmers make a better profit because the livestock can grow bigger and better. The author of “Harm to Others: The Social Cost of Antibiotics in Agriculture” says the animals are “prisoners” and that they do not have the choice to eat the feed with or without antibiotics.
Banning antibiotics all together is a very harsh and irrational idea. Research and monitoring on this subject has been completed. Testing has been completed on the amount of antibiotics being placed in livestock feed and data has been collected to determine how and why this usage of antibiotics causes the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. But the research is not enough to make such a huge decision such as banning the use of antibiotics in animals. More examples of how it’s affecting humans, along with true evidence that antibiotics in livestock feeds are causing the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, should be provided to the public.
To what extent would animals be affected by the banning of antibiotics for agricultural usage? It makes us ask: does this pertain to just livestock such as pigs, chickens, cows, etc. or does it include any type of animal such as household pets? Banning antibiotics must be specific to livestock animals and only antibiotics sold to farmers by veterinarians should be banned. If animal antibiotics are banned, then veterinarian medicine will be greatly affected. Veterinarians will not be able to provide an owner of a cat or dog antibiotics in order to help them recover from a sickness or disease. Stopping veterinarians from doing their job of healing animals is inhumane. Dr. Hurd, the author of “ Commentary: Meat without Drugs Could Be Inhumane,” explains that animals on organic farms are not treated when they’re sick and no antibiotics are given to help their illness. This is wrong; medicine should be available to cure animals of their illness just the same as humans when they are sick. Organic meats are more expensive than standard meats; if antibiotics were banned would the nation, as a whole, want to pay for the more expensive meat?
Before jumping to a huge and inhumane decision, more research needs to be completed in order to collect better evidence and determine if antibiotics really should be banned. If antibiotics were banned, there should be strict regulations and guidelines for the protection of household pets that will not prevent veterinarians from doing their job. If the data collected does not provide concrete evidence that the antibiotic usage in animals is not a threat to humans then maybe scientists can take another route to handle drug-resistant bacteria circulation.
Works Cited:
Anomaly, Jonny. “Harm to Others: The Social Cost of Antibiotics in Agriculture.” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 22.5(2009):423-35. Springer Link. Web. 15 September 2012.Heilig, Steve, Philip Lee, and Lester Breslow. "Curtailing Antibiotic Use in Agriculture." Western Journal of Medicine 176.(2002): n. pag. PMC. Jan. 2002. Web. 13 September 2012.
Hurd. "Commentary: 'Meat without Drugs' Could Be Inhumane." Drovers Cattle Network. N.p., 26 June 2012. Web. 16 September 2012.
“Pig Out.” Nature. Nature Publishing Group, 21 June 2012. Web. 8 September 2012.
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Antibiotic_resistant_bacteria
http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/AntimicrobialResistance/NationalAntimicrobialResistanceMonitoringSystem/default.htm
http://www.creators.com/opinion/daily-editorials/save-antibiotics-for-people-not-poultry.html
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