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Livestock Lessons

OldDog/NewTricks

Well-known member
Livestock lessons

August 24, 2009


Livestock lessons

As a swine veterinarian, I must respond to "Antibiotics and meat" (Editorial, Aug. 15). You imply that overuse of antibiotics in livestock is a primary cause of antibiotic resistance, which is sapping the effectiveness of these drugs in treating human disease. To support that argument, you state as fact an estimate from the Union of Concerned Scientists that 70 percent of all U.S. antibiotics are given to livestock for non-therapeutic purposes. This estimate is junk science at its worst, and eight years old too. Among other things, it includes products that were licensed but never sold in this country. Two examples are oleandomycin and efrotomycin, estimated to be used in pigs at a rate of 66,000 pounds per year. Neither drug was ever marketed.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria develop from many factors, including use of household disinfectants such as antibacterial soap, and the extent to which antibiotic use in animals affects human health is not known. Nor would antibiotic resistance end if antibiotic use on farms were eliminated. It is estimated, for example, that the average child in the United States takes antibiotics for three of the first 24 months of his or her life.

The suggestion that modern livestock farms wantonly misuse antibiotics does a disservice to some very dedicated people. Livestock producers welcome a constructive discussion of how to lessen antibiotic resistance. But that requires a commitment to facts rather than resorting to simple and convenient mischaracterizations. Unfortunately your portrayal does not meet this test.



-- Dr. Craig Rowles, Carroll, Iowa
 

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