Soon farmers will need to acquire prescriptions to
give their livestock antibiotics; and these will only be used when medically
necessary to avoid overuse that can result in resistance in the bacterium. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is
also pushing for the end of antibiotics to be used as weight gain and growth
supplements for livestock. This new
method of use will ensure the care of the animals by farmers and veterinarians,
while at the same time ensuring the medicines that people need remain effective
and safe. Another policy guides drug
makers to voluntarily remove the production uses of antibiotics from their
FDA-approved labels and adding veterinary consultation. The FDA is allowing a three- year period to
allow the drug makers to change their labels.
According to many a voluntary approach will bring about faster results
and prove to be more effective. The
American Meat Institute said “The goal of giving veterinarians greater
oversight of antibiotic use in food is commendable, but cattlemen are worried
about the feasibility of implementing the veterinary feed directives given
certain hurdles”. The National Pork
Production Council says that farmers are already taking voluntary steps to stop
the overuse of antibiotics and by requiring veterinary approval for antibiotic
use will disproportionately affect small producers due to their limited access
to services. The FDA is taking into
consideration solutions on how to solve this problem. Some people believe allowing the industry to
police itself will fail, and they feel that antibiotic regulation should be
mandatory. According to a statement
given by Avinash Kar, an attorney for the Natural Defense Council, “This is an
ineffective response to the real and sobering threat of rising antibiotic
resistance, which threatens human health”.
Giving farmers the opportunity to help control the
antibiotics given to their livestock could turn out to be very beneficial or an
epic fail. Over the past decade serious
resistant strain bacterial infections, such as the swine flu and MRSA, have
jumped from animals to humans causing many deaths. These infectious mutations most likely occur
due to the misuse of antibiotics given to livestock for unnecessary reasons,
such as growth and weight gain. This
misuse is putting humans at an even greater risk for resistant strain
bacteria. People would like to believe
that other people would do the right thing for man kind, but this is not always the case. Humans have the same instinct as all animals; which is survival of the
fittest. Most people will do whatever it
takes to survive and ensure a better life for them and their loved ones. Farming is one of the hardest working and
most underpaid jobs in society. They
make their lives off of the biggest, most beefy livestock they can produce in
order to earn what money they can off of their livestock. Most farmers are not going to police
themselves on antibiotic use very well, if at all, when their animals are how
they ensure the survival of their family.
It does not seem likely that they will stop the misuse of antibiotics and
this could cause serious resistant strain bacteria to mutate in animals and be
contracted by humans. On the other hand
people do surprisingly good things; and when they do it normally betters human
kind, that is what makes us human. If
farmers band together and realize the harmful affect that the misuse of
antibiotics has on global health, then it could help cut back on the ever
growing threat of resistant strains of bacteria. In order to do this more help and benefits
would have to be given to the farmers in order to ensure they can provide for
and support their families in the same way.
Governments worldwide need to agree upon a solution of how to handle
this situation because food, like the rest of today’s commodities, can easily
be transported worldwide.
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