There is also growing evidence that feeding human antibiotics to farm animals causes antibiotic resistance in the animals, and that the bacteria can infect people. A 1999 study related feeding quinolone antibiotics to poultry in Minnesota to human infections with antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacterium Campylobacter jejuni. In 1997, the European Union banned avoparcin, a drug related to vancomycin, from animal feed after studies linked it to the development of vancomycin-resistant bacteria. In 1998, the European Union banned four more antibiotics for similar reasons. As we've said, the exact amount of antibiotic resistance due to farm practices is controversial and unknown.
Some experts are less equivocal.
It's a stupid idea and will always be a stupid idea. These are life-saving drugs we use to fight off infection, and to be throwing them at cattle that are not going to die anyway is stupid. A 1994 workshop sponsored by the World Health Organization reiterated a 1969 report by an expert committee from the United Kingdom. That group, the Swann Committee, argued that to avoid antibiotic resistance, animals should not receive human antibiotics. A slight edge To evaluate the situation, we must also look at the benefits of using antibiotics as growth promoters.