Introduction

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) estimates that 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States – more that 24 million pounds per year – are routinely put in the food and water of healthy livestock. More than half of these drugs are identical to antibiotics doctors rely upon to treat human illness. They are given to animals to make them grow faster on less feed and to compensate for the crowded, unhygienic conditions typically found on today’s industrialized livestock “farms.” The startling research done by the UCS reveals growing concerns regarding today’s food supply and general human health.

Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are a common animal-raising technique used to satisfy the growing demand for inexpensive meat, milk, and eggs. At the expense of human health, antibiotics, such as fluoroquinolones, penicillin, and tetracycline, are being administered to livestock to compensate for the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions of CAFOs. The practice of giving animals subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics routinely used to treat humans is justified by supporters because it allegedly has promoted growth, increased feed efficiency, and decreased mortality of animals.

The use of antibiotics in this manner has prompted many human health concerns. Commonly used antibiotics have been rendered useless against many new strains of bacteria, prompting food safety concerns. Common food-borne ailments caused, for example, by Escherichia Coli 0157:H7, are now becoming more deadly because some strains are resistant to antibiotics that are routinely used.

While this issue has been studied extensively, the federal government and its various agencies have failed to enact rules that effectively deal with this threat to the public’s general welfare. The simplest method to address this growing problem is to forbid the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in healthy livestock and remove commonly used antibiotics routinely used in human medicine from the feed of animals.

This web site offers the tools necessary for your state to remove antibiotics from the feed of animals, and maintain the effectiveness of antibiotics for human use. These tools include a sample bill, talking points, press clips, a fact pack, research, and other background information.

We may have other useful materials on this subject which are not posted on our website. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or call our office in Madison, Wisconsin, at (608) 252-9800.

If you’ve used this site and found it helpful, or if you have suggestions about how it could be made more helpful, please let us know.