Change Your World Week Fall 2021 (Archived)

Opposing viewpoints: 

• increasing efficiency and growth rate is a good reason to use antibiotics in livestock 

• Antibiotics in animal feed, in general, are used regularly for increased efficiency and growth rate than to combat specific diseases.

By purchasing meat that is produced without the use of antibiotics you can help stop the spread of antibiotic resistant microbes!  One of the best ways that we can all cause change is by voting with our dollars.  If there is a higher demand for antibiotic free meat, then antibiotic use in livestock farming will decrease!

1. Manyi-Loh, Christy, et al. “Antibiotic Use in Agriculture and Its Consequential Resistance in Environmental Sources: Potential Public Health Implications.” Molecules, vol. 23, no. 4, Apr. 2018, p. 795. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3390/molecules23040795.

2. Ma Z, Lee S, Jeong KC. Mitigating Antibiotic Resistance at the Livestock-Environment Interface:A Review. J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2019 Nov 28;29(11):1683-1692. doi: 10.4014/jmb.1909.09030. PMID: 31693837.

3. “Food and Food Animals.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 June 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/food.html.

4. “Stop Using Antibiotics in Healthy Animals to Preserve Their Effectiveness.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/news/item/07-11-2017-stop-using-antibiotics-in-healthy-animals-to-prevent-the-spread-of-antibiotic-resistance.

5. Pros and Cons of Antibiotics in Livestock Feed, https://www1.udel.edu/chem/C465/senior/fall98/AntibiotFood2/pros_cons.html.