Antibiotics are used in farming to treat infections. But most are used preventatively in healthy animals to avoid infection or, controversially, as a way of boosting weight gain (although the latter was banned in Europe in 2006).
Image copyrightSPLWorryingly, some medically important “last-resort” antibiotics for humans are being used extensively in animals.
Last month, researchers in China identified a strain of infectious bacteria calledEscherichia coli(E. coli) that was highly resistant to polymyxins, the last group of antibiotics left after all others have failed.
The E. coli strain showing resistance to the polymyxin drug colistin was isolated from an intensively farmed pig in Shanghai during routine testing.
The report in the Lancet Infectious Diseases showed resistance in a fifth of animals tested, 15% of raw meat samples and in 16 patients.
Can we stop the use?
In the UK, nearly half of all antibiotics used are in farming. We cannot stop all antibiotic use in food animals. The drugs are useful for reducing animal disease and suffering.
Image copyrightThinkstockBut experts say there is massive scope for curbing their use.
Denmark remains one of the biggest exporters of pork in the world but has greatly reduced its levels of antibiotic use in livestock.
As well as reducing the quantity of use, more restrictions are needed on the types of antibiotics used in animals, the government report says.
Countries need to come together and agree to restrict or even ban the use in animals of antibiotics that are important for humans, it adds.
No comments:
Post a Comment