FDA targets antibiotics in meat

Photo credit:USA Today

For decades, animals (such as cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys) have been fed antibiotics to make them fatter faster. But many health experts have worried all these years about what those antibiotics do to humans when we ingest them, since this ingestion can lead to future antibiotic-resistant infections. Finally, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is cracking down and asking that antibiotics no longer be included in animal feed.

As Robert Lawrence, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, explains, “An infection that is now considered relatively easy to treat could once again prove fatal should antibiotics continue to be misused in food animal production and exacerbate this growing health crisis.” Antibiotics will now only be permitted for sick animals, when prescribed by a veterinarian.

USA Today, 12/11/13

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