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Monday 9 October 2017

How Antibiotics in Livestock Harms Our Health

Antibiotic resistance is an increasing health problem on a global scale. The World Health Organization (WHO) characterizes it as “one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today.”
Because of antibiotic resistance, increasing numbers of infections are becoming harder to treat with antibiotics—including pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gonorrhoea. 
One of the causes of antibiotic resistance is the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock. WHO cites the misuse of antibiotics in livestock as “accelerating the process” of antibiotic resistance. In the U.S. 70 percent of all sales of medically important antibiotics is for use in livestock. The U.S. is also the second highest user of antibiotics in food animal production, accounting for about 13 percent of global use.
Addressing and reducing the use of antibiotics in livestock is key to dealing with antibiotic resistance. As a recently released report written by 12 antibiotic resistance experts states, “Without urgent action, that reality is likely to return as infections that are no longer treatable with today’s antibiotics continue to increase.”
The report titled Combating Antibiotic Resistance: A Policy Roadmap to Reduce Use of Medically Important Antibiotics in Livestock makes recommendations for antibiotic use among livestock. These recommendations are aimed at ensuring policy-makers, food companies, institutional food purchasers and medical groups can address antibiotic use in food animal production.
They fall into three key areas:
  1. decreasing livestock use of antibiotics
  2. monitoring livestock antibiotic use
  3. enhancing surveillance and data integration to inform antibiotic resistance policy 

Jason Newland, MD, who co-chaired the commission that produced the report, said in a statement that “until we become better stewards of antibiotics, both in human medicine and in livestock production, these life-saving drugs will continue to become less effective, and the effectiveness of any future antibiotics will be at constant risk.” Newland is a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Washington University in St. Louis and the Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

HOW TO AVOID ANTIBIOTICS IN LIVESTOCK

The best ways to reduce your exposure to antibiotics in livestock are to buy organic meat or eat less meat or no meat.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture states that organic meat certified by the federal agency comes from animals not given antibiotics. Speak to your local butcher, or look for meat labeled as “no antibiotics,” “raised without antibiotics,” or “USDA-certified organic.”
Cutting back on meat or cutting it out all together might sound difficult, but it doesn’t have to be! Check out these beginner tips for going vegan to help get you started. If you’re worried that eating less meat will be too expensive, try some of these vegan meals for under $5.

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