Groups Press for US Ban on Antibiotics in Healthy Animals

Activists want to force the government to end the use of the drugs as a way to increase growth

21 June 2011

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Antibiotics are used to cure bacterial infections. But about fifty years ago, farmers started to give small amounts of these drugs to healthy animals in their feed. Scientists found that antibiotics improve the growth rate of animals.

But the practice soon led to criticism. Public health experts observed antibiotic-resistant bacteria growing in these animals. Experts say bacteria develop resistance from continual exposure to antibiotics. And resistant bacteria can make it harder to treat infections in humans.

Today big livestock producers around the world use antibiotics for animal growth. Some countries are considering restrictions or already have them. South Korea is banning the practice in July. The European Union began to enforce a ban five years ago. Several EU members had already stopped the practice before that.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration first proposed to ban antibiotic use in healthy animals in nineteen seventy-seven. Congress, however, asked for more research. Today there is no ban. But in June of last year the FDA asked producers to stop the practice over time.

That recommendation was not enough for some critics. Five environmental and consumer