Adrianne Doll
United States livestock, mainly those animals raised for meat, are fed 28.8 million pounds of antibiotics each year. This translates to 80% of all antibiotics in the country, including those for human use. The consequence of consistently feeding antibiotics to livestock is antibiotic resistant bacteria. Humans come in contact with these bacteria through eating food from industrial livestock facilities, living in environments contaminated with waste from such facilities, or by direct contact with animals that are over medicated. Illnesses, in humans, caused by these bacteria do not react to antibiotics as they are supposed to, and instead become “super bugs” that require much stronger and heavier dosages of antibiotics. Some infections have been found to not even react to these stronger antibiotics, for example staphylococcus. Continue reading
Filed under: factory farms | Tagged: animal law, animal welfare, antibiotic use, environmental law, factory farms, farmed animals, industrial farming, subtherapeutic antibiotics | 8 Comments »