To feed or not to feed: Antibiotics in livestock as growth promoters. Good idea?

Posted on December 12, 2013 by admin

A long-running controversy has reared its head again—whether or not antibiotics should be added to animal feed to promote the growth of cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry.  This time, the FDA is considering whether to ban this practice, although they are only talking about voluntary compliance at this time.  As would be expected, opinions vary widely, with farmers on one side and various medical and non-governmental organizations, and individuals on the other.  The practice began about 70 years ago, when farmers discovered that addition of these drugs to animals’ diets made them grow faster—presumably by diminishing the amount of bacteria in the intestinal tract of the animals. However, this hypothesis is one of several explanations for the effect, and the answer remains elusive.

This is clearly seen in a report from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH): “Currently, several mechanisms of action are attributed to antibiotics, but no clear understanding has been achieved.”  The overriding question is, of course, whether this practice has an impact on human health by encouraging antibiotic resistance……To Read More….