Antibiotics in Livestock and Food
The recent emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens is a strong sign of an impending human health crisis.

A substantial part of the problem is excessive use of antibiotics in livestock production. Feeding antibiotics to cows, chickens, and pigs in order to beef them up for human consumption is producing dangerous strains of bacteria that are resistant to these once powerful drugs.

We believe much work is needed both nationally and internationally to tackle this multifaceted problem. Solutions must be advanced along many fronts, including better surveillance and monitoring, establishment of incentives for livestock-production systems that do not depend on antibiotics, and development of new veterinary drugs.

The first step to curbing excessive use of antibiotics is to eliminate unneeded uses, such as to promote growth in livestock. UCS is particularly concerned about misuse of antibiotics that are, or are related to, drugs used in human medicine. As a result, we are urging the Food and Drug Administration to ban the subtherapeutic use in livestock of antibiotic drugs and their close relatives.

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