The agricultural community must accept part of the responsibility. The emphasis is on the word managed , because, a totally risk-free system of food production is an unreasonable and unattainable goal. At least so far, microbes always develop resistance to antibiotics used against them. But we can intelligently manage the use of antibiotics so we can prolong their usefulness for both humans and animals. The need to take action now to address the problem of antibiotic resistance in human medicine and veterinary medicine does not mean we have all of the answers to our questions.
Many research questions remain.
For example, we do not know what degree of resistance is transferred for various organisms. In many cases, we do not even know exactly how resistance is transferred. We also do not know which practices related to antibiotic use present the greatest risks. But having to make safety decisions and take action based on incomplete data is nothing new to risk managers. We must make the best possible public health decisions based on the information available today, and build our knowledge base so that we can make more informed decisions in the future.