The risk to human health and safety from the use of antibiotics in animal production CEG draws attention to the problem of antibiotic resistance and the consequent reduction in the effectiveness of antibiotics used to treat infections in humans, with increasingly fatal consequences.
Antibiotics have a vital role to play in human and animal medicine.
However, antibiotic resistance in human medicine has increased dramatically over the past 25 years and CEG is aware that no new antibiotics are likely to become available in the near future. CEG recognises that this is a global problem. The risk to human health from antibiotic resistant bacteria is so great that any way of reducing it must be examined and acted upon. CEG acknowledges that the increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria occurring in human medicine may result from excessive and necessary use of antibiotics in treating infections in humans. CEG notes that there is widespread concern about the transfer of antibiotic resistant bacteria from animals to humans.