A pressing issue in the scientific world many people are unaware of is the overuse of antibiotics in feed animals. Approximately 80 percent of antibiotics produced in the U.S. each year are used for preventative measures to keep livestock from becoming ill, according to a study published in 2002 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Feed animals are livestock raised and bred for the purpose of human consumption. Those animals include chickens, pigs, cows and turkeys. These antibiotics often are used when animals do not show any signs of illness.
The 2002 study stated that they simply are used to prevent sickness while compensating for the unsanitary conditions in which they are raised. Also, these antibiotics promote animal growth and minimize their food intake — which in turn reduces farmers’ spending and creates a larger profit, the study discovered.
The overuse of preventative antibiotic treatment is a problem because it leads to antibiotic resistance in bacteria over time. Antibiotics are used to kill off harmful bacteria that cause illnesses such as E. coli infections, food poisoning and other food-related diseases.
Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics through genetic mutations passed along over many generations. Since these resistant bacteria are most fit to survive, they will pass on their resistant mutation to future generations.
Bacteria undergo rapid reproduction; therefore this mutation for resistance will evolve through a species of bacteria very quickly.
On a larger scale — in livestock, for example — the bacteria resistance will take longer to show up because the reproduction rate is not comparable to bacteria, it is much slower.
We can see this correlation because these preventative measures began in the 1940s when farmers began mixing antibiotics in with the feed, so it took approximately 70 years to become a pressing issue in our society.
If this problem is not addressed promptly, livestock that do get sick will not be able to be treated with antibiotics because they already will be resistant, and farmers will be forced to slaughter all of those that are contaminated.
This problem does not affect only the health of animals, but people as well. Humans that unknowingly consume infected animals will not be able to be treated by antibiotics because they will be consuming the same bacteria that existed in the animals.
However, there is something that can be done to try to control this already-growing problem, but it requires change to be made in the agricultural world.
Farmers can start by making the living conditions of the animals more sanitary. This will reduce the amount of bacteria to which the animals are exposed. The most critical change that needs to be made is the termination of the use of non-therapeutic antibiotics.
Farmers need to start treating the animals with antibiotics only when they are sick. By making these changes, we will be able to hinder the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Emma Hill, Brittany Syrowik, Kayla Kremer, Caitlin Hook, zoology 445 students
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