Article

USDA Report: Studies Show Farms Need To Use Fewer Antibiotics

June 15, 2011

Publication: Dow Jones Newswires

Author: Bill Tomson

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- Research from around the world shows a pressing need to regulate and stem the widespread use of antibiotics on livestock, which can become reservoirs of bacteria resistant to drugs that were previously able to kill the bugs that can also sicken and kill humans, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The USDA report, pulling from studies and other reports conducted at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, Italy's Department of Health and Welfare and elsewhere, show that the "use and misuse" of antibiotics for livestock is one of the main factors behind the acceleration of antibiotic resistance in the bacteria that consumers can be exposed to simply by eating.

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