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Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics

Worldwide it is estimated that 73% of all antibiotics are used in farm animals, not people. Much of this use is routine, and enables farm animals, most often pigs and poultry but sometimes also cattle, to be kept in poor conditions where disease spreads easily. Leading authorities such as the European Medicines Agency and the WHO say that the overuse of antibiotics in farming contributes to higher levels of antibiotic resistance in some human infections.

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 Big Meat just can’t quit antibiotics

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew that America’s meat industry had a drug problem. For decades, evidence had amassed that the widespread use of antibiotics to help chickens, pigs, and cattle grow faster — and survive the crowded conditions of factory farms — was causing bacteria to mutate and develop resistance to antibiotics.

Articles of Interest

An Avoidable Ingredient: Antibiotics

So, how can you ensure that your dog’s diet does not pose a risk to their wellbeing or yours? The best method is to avoid traditional, mass-produced proteins. Antibiotics are ingrained in agricultural practices for beef and poultry which makes it difficult to ensure that these protein sources are truly free from antibiotics.

Antibiotic Use in Livestock and Residues in Food—A Public Health Threat: A Review

The usage of antibiotics has been, and remains, a topic of utmost importance; on the one hand, for animal breeders, and on the other hand, for food safety. Although many countries have established strict rules for using antibiotics in animal husbandry for the food industry, their misuse and irregularities in compliance with withdrawal periods are still identified.

Antibiotics in Meat Could Be Damaging Our Guts

The F.D.A. banned the use of antibiotics for growth promotion in animals last year. One organic cattle farmer is sure the ban is being flouted.

For the First Time, Antibiotic Use in Farm Animals Drops

For decades, farmers have relied on small but continuous doses of antibiotics—sometimes the same ones used to treat humans—to help animals grow. It’s unclear exactly why it works, but it does. These doses also create antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could spread to humans. For example, resistance to colistin, an antibiotic saved as a last resort in humans, may have spread through its use in pig farming.

Handle with care: The dictum for using antibiotics in livestock

Using natural additives in animal feed, educating farmers, timely vaccination, ethnoveterinary practices and strict implementation of rules can reduce antibiotic use in farm animals.

Huge levels of antibiotic use in US farming revealed

Livestock raised for food in the US are dosed with five times as much antibiotic medicine as farm animals in the UK, new data has shown, raising questions about rules on meat imports under post-Brexit trade deals.

Is the US Meat Industry Pushing Us Into a 'Post-Antibiotic Era'?

Big Meat’s rampant use of antibiotics—one of the biggest threats to public health of our time—isn't showing any signs of slowing down.

Many European farmers still give their animals too many antibiotics

Despite the bloc’s strict rules, drugs often compensate for poor welfare

New Report Says FDA Allowed 'High Risk' Antibiotics to Be Used on Farm Animals

Astark fact: around 80% of the antibiotics by weight used in the U.S. are given not to sick human beings, but to farm animals. And for the most part, these drugs aren’t prescribed by veterinarians to save ill pigs or chickens, but instead are administered to animals in low doses in their food and water, for the purpose of growth promotion—the drugs seem to help livestock pack on weight—and prophylactially, to help them survive the packed conditions of a modern factory farm.

Opinion: Stop giving antibiotics to cows, pigs, and chickens now

The practice of speeding up antibiotic resistance, just for the sake of producing larger livestock, must stop immediately, here and around the world.

Pharming animals: a global history of antibiotics in food production (1935–2017)

Since their advent during the 1930s, antibiotics have not only had a dramatic impact on human medicine, but also on food production. On farms, whaling and fishing fleets as well as in processing plants and aquaculture operations, antibiotics were used to treat and prevent disease, increase feed conversion, and preserve food.

Riots, Rage, and Resistance: A Brief History of How Antibiotics Arrived on the Farm

In 1950, American farmers rejoiced at news from a New York laboratory: A team of scientists had discovered that adding antibiotics to livestock feed accelerated animals’ growth and cost less than conventional feed supplements.

Taking Cues From Human Nutrition To Reduce Antibiotic Use In Livestock

"We cannot say that probiotics is the silver bullet to completely eliminate antibiotics," Penaloza says. "But I am sure that they can help a lot."

Use of antibiotics as feed additives: a burning question

Antibiotics are chemotherapeutic agents used for the clinical management of infectious diseases in humans, plants and animals. However a sizeable fraction of antibiotics produced every year all over the world is used for non-therapeutic purposes. In US alone, about 24.6 million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal agriculture annually and a substantial portion of this is used as growth promoters and not for the treatment of infections.

Why reducing antibiotics in farm animals isn’t as easy as it seems

Whereas animal welfare is complex, it pales relative to the complexity of antibiotic use. There is a real risk that we may be moving towards a less-than-ideal result for animals, producers and consumers due to poor understanding, over-simplistic messaging and a rush for competitive advantage. But it’s important that we get it right. There is broad, scientific consensus that antibiotic use in animal agriculture is increasing the risk of the development of resistant bacteria. It’s less clear what, if any, role this plays in human health.

Why We Need to Ban the Use of Antibiotics in Farm Animals Now

Using cephalosporins as an animal growth promoter could lead to an immunity in humans that makes us vulnerable to infections.