WASHINGTON (June 19, 2007)—Tyson Foods, the nation's largest producer of chicken, announced today that it has begun to produce all of its fresh chicken free of antibiotics and is selling the chicken in grocery stores under a  "Raised Without Antibiotics" label.

Below is a statement by Margaret Mellon, director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS):

"By deciding to produce its fresh chicken without antibiotics, Tyson is taking an important step toward protecting public health from antibiotic-resistant disease, and UCS applauds them for it. An estimated 70 percent of antibiotics and related drugs in the United States are fed to healthy pigs, cows, and chickens to promote growth and prevent disease, according to UCS research. That's eight times the amount of antibiotics used to treat diseases in humans. Studies show that the use of antibiotics like tetracycline and erthyromycin in animal agriculture leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause human illness and doctors are increasingly finding that the antibiotics they prescribe are less and less effective.

"With industry juggernaut Tyson proving that poultry can be grown without using antibiotics as a crutch, we're hopeful that other poultry producers, as well as swine and beef producers, will follow suit. But protecting public health shouldn't be about crossing our fingers and hoping that companies do the right thing. Congress should pass the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, which would prevent all meat and poultry producers from using antibiotics important to human medicine as routine animal feed additives. Until that happens, Americans remain vulnerable to drug-resistant bacteria that are often more virulent and much more costly to treat."