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The antibiotics have been put in U.S. animal feed for decades to speed
growth and prevent illness; this practice, controversial in America and
elsewhere, has been severely limited in the European Union. In accordance
with the EU's position, the American Medical Association recently began a
sorely needed campaign to encourage the federal government to restrict the
indiscriminate use of antibiotics in livestock. The AMA fears that the
inappropriate use of these drugs in animals and humans is contributing to
the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Three studies published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine
make the AMA's effort more urgent. One study shows a high incidence of
antibiotic-resistant salmonella in ground meat obtained at a supermarket.
The second suggests that the effectiveness of a powerful, recently approved
human antibiotic has been compromised by the longtime use of a similar drug
in animals. The third shows that antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in
chicken parts and slaughtered pigs can remain at least two weeks in the
intestinal tract of humans.
A guest editorial in the New England Journal properly calls the studies the
"smoking gun" linking the use of antibiotics in animal production with
antibiotic resistance in humans.
David Wallinga, director of the Antibiotic Resistance Project at the
Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, points out
that seven of the 17 antibiotics commonly given to livestock to induce
growth are either identical or nearly identical to antibiotics given to
humans. These include penicillin and amoxicillin - both of which can be
used to combat anthrax infection - tetracycline and erythromycin.
Even more disturbing, one study has found that 70% of antibiotics produced
in this country are given to healthy pigs, cows and poultry, Wallinga
notes. That is a gross and dangerous misuse of these vitally important
drugs. It needs to stop, or at least be severely curtailed, in the interest
of public health.
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