Human Antibiotics In Animals the Cause of Drug Resistance ?

Farm animals are becoming a public health concern as the diseases they carry are becoming more and more resistant due to the human antibiotic that are used to make the animals grow faster while being feed less food. Drug resistance spreads can be spread in other ways besides from animals to humans such as from person to person, when antibiotics are not taken as prescribed, incorrect dosage and duration. At first the antibiotics work on the farm animals, but then they become gene resistant and is passed down to larger groups of animals. This is due to the fact that segments of DNA can jump and change between different species and strains of the microorganisms. The used of antibiotics on farms is causing an issue with medicines ability to combat bacterial viruses. However, the farm industry does not believe that this rising issues should be of any concern because it is not as extreme as researchers are claiming it to be. Some farm companies are even keeping researchers away in order to keep them from finding more evidence that the farm industry is making it more difficult to treat bacterial diseases by making claims that allowing outsiders around the animals can cause the spread of disease.

The connection between human consumption of animals that are raised with antibiotics leading to resistance to drugs is a question that has been explored by researchers in 1975 from Tuft University. In order to test the connection the researchers took 150 chickens and gave them tetracycline and observed them over the course of four months. By the end of the four months the chickens that had bacteria within them that were 36% more tetracycline- resistant. In other cases it is seen that animals that are not even raised with antibiotics are carries of bacteria that is more resistant to antibiotics due to the spread of gene resistance.

A solution has been put in place by companies such as Tyson that is now avoiding the uses of human antibiotics while other company are raising livestock with vegetarian free antibiotics diet. Since there is not much research done on this topic due to the feud between researchers and meat companies it will be difficult to stop the detrimental transformation that this issue is causing for public health. However, regardless of whether or not there is a correlation between the use of human antibiotics and drug resistance a better alternative should be made to raise animals such as a healthier diet so that antibiotics are not heavily relied on.