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This line item for allowed uses from that link: * Prevent disease in animals that are at risk for becoming sick Is pretty much a giant loophole.

• refurb 7y ago
  If those animals are treated, they then need to be pulled out of the food supply until the antibiotic washes out. It’s not in a farmers best interest to use an antibiotic in those circumstances unless the animal needs it.
  • Retric 7y ago
    That’s often irrelevant. If a cow is going to be slaughtered at 36 months, you can use antibiotics for 95% of their lifetime and still have a 50 days window at the end.
  • Accujack 7y ago
    >until the antibiotic washes out. This is part of the problem. If animals are given the antibiotics, then their waste products contain them, and piles of manure or water runoff/storm drains/wastewater ponds form a giant evolutionary experiment for development of drug resistant organisms. They're not just a problem while they're in animals, they're a problem if they're used at all.
    • heavyset_go 7y ago
      Apparently, most antibiotics don't undergo metabolism in animals, and 40-90% of ingested antibiotics in livestock are excreted in urine and feces[1]. Those antibiotics go on to contaminate groundwater, and as you say, contribute significantly to antibiotic resistance[2]. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4220964/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4220964/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_livestock#Antibiotic_resistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_livestock#An...
  • Johnny555 7y ago
    Does that make any practical difference for animals meant for consumption like beef cattle, hogs, or chickens? You can give them all the antibiotics you want until a few days before slaughter.
    • vibrio 7y ago
      It does. The animals will be colonized by bacteria that have "learned" to deal with all those antibiotics you gave. That resistance is easily transmitted.
      • Johnny555 7y ago
        I understand the problem with antibiotic resistance, but telling a farmer that an animal treated by antibiotics can't enter the food supply until after treatment ends doesn't really solve the problem when it comes to animals raised as food -- the farmer can treat the animal with antibiotics for nearly all of its life, only stopping the treatment just before slaughter.
        • vibrio 7y ago
          Totally agreed. I'm naive to much around Ag/Husbandry. If that's what farmers do, that is a concern. From a microbiology point of view, the concept that "washing out" the drug before slaughter improves anything is flawed. It will be a reservoir of smoldering antibiotic resistance as long as that practice persists.
  • vibrio 7y ago
    > until the antibiotic washes out. while I don't want surprise antibiotics in my food, I'm probably more concerned about the antibiotic resistance that antibiotic exposure generates. The flora of those animals _will_ have drug resistance genes that doesn't just "wash out". That resistnce can be passed to other animals or human by direct contact, environment or otherwise.