Antibiotics and Our Livestock

It is difficult to ignore the effects that industrialization has brought to our nation; it has brought with it progress and regression in all aspects, particularly our meat industry. One of the biggest contributors to this rapid and abrupt changes is the adoption of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) and the discontinuation of smaller family farms in the 20th century. CAFOs have allowed farmers to confine thousands of animals in enclosed spaces that lead to the clear threat of bacteria and disease. The only defense that these farmers have against the threat of bacteria and disease is the overdose of the vast amount of livestock with non-theraputic antibiotics.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that 80% of antibiotics produced in 2009 were reserved for livestock, approximately 28.8 million pounds. This overdosing of livestock has led to the creation of powerful anti-resistant strands of bacteria, such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), a staph infection that has become synonymous with antibiotic use on livestock, which in 2005 was responsible for an estimated 94,000 invasive life-threatening infections and close to 19,000 human deaths.

Something must be done to fight this evident threat. The use of non-theraputic antibiotics on livestock is a difficult issue to contain, but if not contained or eliminated, the antibiotic negligence will lead to a microbial pandemic.