For Not Restricting Antibiotic Use On Farms Use in Animal Feed Increases Risks of Superbugs Washington, D.C. - Public health, agriculture and environmental groups today sharply criticized a government plan to reduce antibiotic resistance, saying it fails to call for banning the use of medically important antibiotics in agriculture.
Farmers commonly use penicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin and others.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers should disclose data on antibiotic use in agriculture. Industry does not currently provide information on how much of each antibiotic is fed to which animal species, making it difficult to predict or prevent increasing resistance. The Environmental Protection Agency should work to control effluents from factory-farming operations under the Clean Water Act. Run-off from factory farms can contain antibiotics, promoting the spread of antibiotic resistance. One cause of the emerging antibiotic resistance crisis is the drugs' use to promote faster growth in chickens, hogs and other food animals and to prevent higher rates of disease caused by crowded and unsanitary growing conditions in factory farms.