For the hundreds of Americans who have been sickened by salmonella-tainted peanut products, life-saving antibiotics are helping to prevent a catastrophe. But if we don’t change our livestock feeding practices, soon the salmonella may win.
On many large industrial farms, antibiotics commonly used by humans are fed routinely to the animals, not to cure illness but to compensate for crowded, unsanitary conditions and to stimulate faster growth. Unfortunately, this also promotes the development of new and deadly strains of drug-resistant bacteria.*
Congress needs to protect American consumers by preventing the misuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture and reforming our food safety laws. Learn more at SaveAntibiotics.org.
*For references and additional background, see “Antimicrobial Resistance and Human Health,” a technical report of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, at www.pcifap.org.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) today introduced the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act, a bipartisan bill that would eliminate certain antibiotic-related practices that contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria and endanger human health. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jack Reed (D-RI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
More infoThis bibliography lists the latest published scientific and economic literature concerning the contribution of routine antibiotic use in food animals to the growing public health crisis of human antibiotic resistance. Research on how antibiotic use in food animal production contributes to the growing health crisis of antibiotic resistance dates back more than 30 years.
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