Steve Kay - Drumbeat to reduce antibiotics in the meat industry will only get louder

...While I don’t regard science as infallible, I have never doubted the rigor with which it is applied. However, the largely false claim that human resistance to antibiotics is due to antibiotic use in the livestock industry illustrates how you can repeat the facts over and over, and people will still ignore them. The key fact is that the vast majority of antibiotics used by animals are not used by humans. Tetracyclines and ionophores account for 72% of animal use, but only 4% (tetracyclines only) of human use. Here’s another thing: To my knowledge, there are no scientific data that link antibiotics used in meat production to antibiotic resistance in humans. Many consumers, though, don’t care about the facts. They want any kind of antibiotic out of their food. The result so far has been enormous pressure on the chicken industry, with consumer groups persuading chains like McDonald’s and Chipotle to get rid of antibiotics. The poultry giants have responded. Tyson Foods says it is striving to eliminate the use of human antibiotics from its U.S. broiler-chicken flocks by the end of September 2017. Given that Tyson is the largest fed-beef processor as well, its move has implications for the U.S. beef industry. Public pressure over antibiotic use continues to mount, and the calls for red meat to act will get even louder. Tyson has anticipated this. It is forming working groups with independent producers and others in its beef, pork and turkey supply chains to discuss ways to reduce the use of human antibiotics on cattle, hog and turkey farms. These groups will begin meeting this summer...more