Antibiotics were introduced to people in 1929, which could restrain the normal growth of the other bacteria called antimicrobial activity, was found by British scientist Alexander Fleming by coincidence. Then scientists used antibiotics, to cure injured soldiers and got great success during the World War. With the efforts of many scientists in the past half of the century, thousand kinds of antibiotics are found, which could be natural, semi-synthetic or synthetic, and many of them are used in medical field successfully. In this time and age, with the astounding development of large-scale livestock feeding operation of swine, poultry and especially cattle, the antibiotics are used globally to keep the animals healthy and promote their …show more content…
And in the European Union in the 1990s, 5 million kg of antibiotics has been reported in total, but only 3.5 million kg were used for therapeutic purposes (Boxall et al., 2000). In China, antibiotics have been widely used in livestock industries since the early 1990s. The annual total usage of veterinary antibiotics has reached approximately 6000 tons, most of which happens in the economically developed regions (Hou, 2003). It seems that human can start to overcome most of diseases by using antibiotics without any bad influence. But as time goes by, the side effects show up. The excessive use of antibiotics brings the disadvantages and problems with the heaps of advantages simultaneously. Antibiotics are not only exacerbating the health risk of animals, and human beings, but also exacerbating the environmental impairment. The antibiotics are used to treat and prevent diseases in human beings and animals’ medicine, but there are many kinds of risks deriving from the antibiotics therapies, which include the development and spread of resistant bacteria strains and environmental contamination; besides, the micro-biotic organism is also a big issue we need to concern about. Firstly, under the overexposure of antibiotics, the microbes in the livestock’s internal environment especially in the intestine could acquire the new piece of DNA, and the changed genes will make livestock resist antibiotics when the next time they really need to use
In this brief, the reader will see the pros and cons in antibiotic livestock. They will see commonly misunderstandings about antibiotics and facts. Throughout the paper the reader will see what long term and short term problems and benefits in livestock. In this research paper it will be covering antibiotics resistance and also how antibiotics it has changed the face of medicine.
The wonderful discovery of Penicillin, a medicine that was discovered in 1928. This medicine was used to cure bacteria in humans. Penicillin had good results not only in the 1928, as it also still is very successful today. Penicillin had a big impact, it cured many people in the U.S. during World War II. penicillin,leads to the development of others antibiotics.
In recent years, Americans have been blaming antibiotics used in animals to be processed for food for many of the growing number of health problems in developed countries. Fast food restaurants are making movements to remove antibiotic treated meats from their menus. This movement is causing quite the stir in consumers and livestock producers alike. Do the antibiotics used in beef really contribute to antibiotic resistant diseases? Should antibiotics be outlawed in the use of farm animals? The eradication of antibiotic use in America’s beef industry is not feasible due to its usage in the treatment and control of deadly or discomforting diseases.
By weight, eighty percent of antibiotics are used in agriculture to “fatten animals” and “protect them from the conditions in which they are raised” (McKenna). Animals are given micro-doses of antibiotics, that is, a small amount of antibiotics to prevent diseases from occurring. This micro-dosage amount allows for mutation that Fleming described. The routine use of antibiotics in agriculture has led to “[sixty-five] percent of chicken breasts” and “[forty-four] percent of ground beef” to house bacteria “resistant to tetracycline”. Additionally, “[eleven] percent of pork chops carried bacteria resistant to five classes of drugs” (McKenna). These bacteria then spread from animals to the humans who eat them, causing humans to get infections which cannot be treated. The issue isn’t as simple as ceasing to give antibiotics to animals. Most animals raised for consumption live in an environment ripe for infections and diseases to spread. Instead of giving the animals more room to live, the majority of farmers opt to give the animals antibiotics. For cattle, This prevents diseases and death to the immature weaned calves and cattle which saves the rancher both time and money—passing on the savings to the consumers. In a free market society higher prices tend to not go well. However, if antibiotics became useless farmers would have to “[enlarge] barns, [cut] down on crowding, and [delay] weaning”, which ultimately would increase the costs of raising livestock
Antibiotic use in animals has recently captured the attention of various professionals as the blatant, adverse effects have become increasingly prevalent. Agricultural manufacturers carelessly inject livestock with antibiotics in order to maximize their weight gain by minimizing the amount of energy consumed in fighting illnesses. This broad use of antibiotics in food-producing animals has contributed to the emergence and distribution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resulting in either mild or fatal illnesses. To put the severity of this issue in perspective, legislators must realize that 1 in 5 antibiotic-resistant infections are caused by bacteria from food and animals. Although antibiotic use in animals is not the sole culprit of the
This is due in part by the previous statement to get higher yields out every animal raised. Cattle, chickens and pigs alike are all subject to certain fattening diets, modern breeding techniques and growth hormone treatments. These forced practices have very adverse, life altering and threatening affects that lead farmers to use antibiotics in order to keep diseases at bay. The Committee on Drug Use in Food Animals states, “doses are used when pathogens are known to be present in the environment or when animals encounter a high stress situation and are more susceptible to pathogens “, (1999, p. 28). It is important to point out that the use of growth hormones and antibiotics dramatically increases body mass, drastically shortens the lifespan of animals such as cattle and is being detected in food for human consumption.
All anti-infection agents utilized as a part of human treatment since the beginning of the anti-infection agents time in the mid 1900s can be partitioned into three unmistakable classifications as indicated by how they were eventually produced on substantial scale. These arrangements take after. Natural products: mixes made specifically by huge scale aging of microscopic organisms or parasites. Semi-synthetic antibacterial: compounds manufactured by chemical synthesis using as starting material a natural product. Fully synthetic antibacterial: exacerbates that are fabricated by completely manufactured courses (Wright, Seiple, and Myers, 2014).
The group most affected by antimicrobial resistance directly related to the agriculture industry are children under the age of ten. When pathogens become multidrug resistant the risk of detrimental outcomes including fatality increases significantly (Shey, 2003). Studies were conducted in Denmark after the ban on nontherapeutic antibiotic use in farm animals in 1999. Research concludes that there was a reduction in drug resistant genes and the health of the animals did not significantly decline nor did the profits of the
In 2011, the United States sold 29.9 million pounds of antibiotics for meat and poultry production use. but only 7.7 million pounds for human use. Antibiotics are used in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to kill bacteria that lives among the animals to keep them healthy until slaughter. They come with many side effects which end up harming the consumer, the animal's life becomes shortened because of the antibiotics speeding up the growth and the long term effects on the earth could end up costing us lots of money. Even though antibiotics keep the animal healthy, the usage in livestock should be banned because it causes a health threat to the consumer and creates antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Antibiotics started being used for production purposes around the 1940s, farmers started to notice that when antibiotics were fed to their poultry, it promoted growth. This fast growth curve was especially liked by farmers because it increased the profits on their farms. From that point on, antibiotics were incorporated into livestock’s regular feed. In 1951, the FDA approved the first antibiotic that could be used for extra weight gain. It wasn’t until of 1969 that scientists started discovering antibiotic resistance due to the careless use by farmers. “When
To understand the functions of antibiotic and antimicrobial use in the food industry one must consider how antibiotics became incorporated in the industry over the past few decades. Antibiotic use erupted during WWII where they were developed at a large scale to control human infections. This mixed in with the high demand for food during the war lead to antibiotics becoming economically advantages for use on farm animals. During the 1940s research labs conducted experiments to examine the effects of antibiotics administered to food animals. These experiment lead to findings of antibiotics being used to treat diseases in animals. Due to the high demand of food for the war antibiotics were used as nutrition for animals to supplement the plant-based
For many years factory farms have been using antibiotics to promote faster growth and prevent disease that could sicken livestock held in confinements (Dillon). Even though they are putting antibiotics into the livestock when they are healthy they, instead of getting sick from it, actually grow faster letting the farmer produce more livestock in the same amount of time then they could without giving them antibiotics thus making the meat for the consumer cheaper with the same qualities as before.
In 1928, after the careless mistake of forgetting to clean his dishes, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. The scientific community still celebrates his discovery since it was a major breakthrough in science, especially in the antibiotics and fermentation field. Although his discovery changed various scientific fields and it opened the doors for research in areas not studied or considered relevant before, the actual usefulness of penicillin was truly reached until the large scale production of penicillin was achieved. Before its manufacturing penicillin was considered for researching purposes, but after its manufacturing during World War II, it truly became helpful for humanity because it could finally start performing within its antibiotic spectrum.
But it’s possible to change, countries like Denmark and Sweden have led the way in commercial farming methods that minimize antibiotic use (Sayre 76-83). Unfortunately, large scale factory farms in U.S. show little interest in the voluntary use of alternative management strategies as a method improve the overall health and wellbeing of their animals and reduce antibiotics.
When the law changes imposing regulations such as minimum wage laws, quotas on production, work safety regulations, or limiting the use of certain inputs, companies must change their production process to fit these regulations. In 2013 the FDA “...asked producers of veterinary antibiotics to revise labels to make it effectively illegal for farmers and ranchers to administer drugs for the purpose of promoting growth” (Kesmodel et al, 1). Although this did not completely eliminate the use of antibiotics for growth purposes, it did force many ranchers to re-engineer their business processes. One of the main ways that farmers have changed the way they raise livestock is through the use of different methods to protect their livestock from disease such as using vaccines and probiotics to help protect animals (Kesmodel et al,