Feeding Antibiotics To Farmed Animals Is Set To Increase Despite Health Fears

EAT

Feb 7

Human resistance to antibiotics is one of the biggest threats to global health according to the World Health Organization, and the medicine’s misuse in farmed animals is accelerating the problem.

The controversial and dangerous use of antibiotics in farmed animals is estimated to increase by 8 percent within the next decade, despite the world’s leading health organizations repeatedly warning of its severe risk to human health.

Farmed animals are routinely fed drugs and antibiotics to speed up their growth and to help keep them alive on farms as part of the global animal agriculture industry.

But the practise of farms using antibiotics is said to risk creating a potentially-devastating human resistance to antibiotics. The United Nations (UN) have repeatedly warned that antibiotic-resistant bacteria is already increasing: at least 700,000 people die every year from drug-resistant diseases, and the UN says that number could increase to 10 million deaths annually by 2050 if no action is taken.

Currently antibiotics are used in humans to help treat life-threatening diseases and illnesses like pneumonia, tuberculous, and gonorrhoea, but this medicine could risk losing its effectiveness entirely if our resistance continues to grow.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, and that the misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is accelerating the process.

Despite these warnings, antibiotic usage in animal agriculture is actually predicted to increase according to the results of a new study.

Published this month in the journal PLOS Global Public Health, the research shows that global antimicrobial usage on animal farms was estimated at 99,502 tonnes in 2020, which is now predicted to increase by 8 percent to 107,472 tonnes by 2030.

More Meat, More Animals, More Antibiotics

So what’s driving the increase? The global demand for meat products has led to a rise in the number of farmed animals around the world. This has resulted in a dramatic increase of industrial-scale factory farms, where hundreds or even thousands of animals are crowded together, often in unclean and unsanitary living conditions. Antibiotics to help kill parasites and speed the animal’s growth are used throughout the animal agriculture industry, but particularly in factory farms where the animals are more likely to develop serious health problems.

The new findings show that China, Brazil, India, United States, and Australia are the top five countries for the highest use of antibiotics in farmed animals.

As well as the threat of antibiotic resistance, the use of drugs in farmed animals is also criticized for its link with cancer. Drugs like carbadox continue to be used in the industry, despite being noted for its carcinogenic properties and the potential for residues of the drug to remain in meat.

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