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> 80% of antibiotics used in the US are given to farm animals These antibiotics are not the same ones used to treat human infections, and the correlation betwe

by lidlin 9y ago

> 80% of antibiotics used in the US are given to farm animals These antibiotics are not the same ones used to treat human infections, and the correlation between the rise in antibiotic resistant infections and antibiotic use in livestock does not indicate causation. > Bird flu or swine flu has a decent probability of being the next epidemic because of this practice. Influenza is caused by a virus, and is unaffected by antibiotics.

DennisP 9y ago
It's simply not the case that we use totally different antibiotics for agriculture. Here's an article in Scientific American about the health risks of agricultural antibiotics. One quote: "One study reported that more than 90 percent of E. coli in pigs raised on conventional farms are resistant to tetracycline." https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-drug-resistant-bacteria-travel-from-the-farm-to-your-table/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-drug-resistan... I guess it's possible that the rise of both antibiotic use in livestock and antibiotic resistance in their bacteria is completely coincidental, but given the well-understood causal connection it seems quite unlikely.
pbhjpbhj 9y ago
But aren't influenza infections often associated with secondary bacterial infections, eg https://academic.oup.com/jac/article/64/5/889/716264/Swine-flu-and-antibiotics https://academic.oup.com/jac/article/64/5/889/716264/Swine-f..., where to treat the patient "with flu" prescription of antibiotics is a normal and beneficial course of action?
ravitation 9y ago
> These antibiotics are not the same ones used to treat human infections, and the correlation between the rise in antibiotic resistant infections and antibiotic use in livestock does not indicate causation. This is not true. There are multiple antibiotics that are used in both livestock and humans. It is only true that there are some antibiotics used in livestock and not in humans.

by lidlin 9y ago

DennisP 9y ago

It's simply not the case that we use totally different antibiotics for agriculture. Here's an article in Scientific American about the health risks of agricultural antibiotics. One quote: "One study reported that more than 90 percent of E. coli in pigs raised on conventional farms are resistant to tetracycline." https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-drug-resistant-bacteria-travel-from-the-farm-to-your-table/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-drug-resistan... I guess it's possible that the rise of both antibiotic use in livestock and antibiotic resistance in their bacteria is completely coincidental, but given the well-understood causal connection it seems quite unlikely.

pbhjpbhj 9y ago

But aren't influenza infections often associated with secondary bacterial infections, eg https://academic.oup.com/jac/article/64/5/889/716264/Swine-flu-and-antibiotics https://academic.oup.com/jac/article/64/5/889/716264/Swine-f..., where to treat the patient "with flu" prescription of antibiotics is a normal and beneficial course of action?

ravitation 9y ago

> These antibiotics are not the same ones used to treat human infections, and the correlation between the rise in antibiotic resistant infections and antibiotic use in livestock does not indicate causation. This is not true. There are multiple antibiotics that are used in both livestock and humans. It is only true that there are some antibiotics used in livestock and not in humans.