JLMC 547 Research paper Dongyan Wang
Comparing reports on antibiotics resistance in USA and UK
Introduction and statement of the problem
Antibiotics are a critical component in animal production. They are used in food animals for treatment or prevention of disease, for increasing production performance or increasing efficiency of feed consumption, and for modifying the nutrients composition of an animal product.
As in human medicine, antibiotics were used extensively in animal during their early development in the 1950’s and through the 1960’s (Frost, 1991). And it gradually became a part of a balanced, integrated approach to the control of infectious diseases in all species of animals. Besides curing disease in animals, antibiotics could also be a growth promoter. Oral antibiotics, especially those that act on Gram positive organisms, became widely used at sub-therapeutic levels for their consistent ability to improve the growth of livestock (Crawford, 1983). It is also accepted that regular intake very low level of antibiotics as feed additives has a direct nutrient sparing effect and reduces the production of urea, methane, and ammonia in the intestine (Walton, 1983). The proposed mechanism is that antibiotics could modify the metabolic activity of certain intestinal micro-organisms, or a shift of the balance of the microbial ecosystem, which constitutes an essential part of mammalian digestion.
Therefore, using antibiotics in animal production provide many benefits related to animal health, animal welfare and economic return for the industry. There are 21 antibiotics permitted to give pigs and 17 antibiotics to chickens for growth promotion and feed efficiency, therapeutic purposes, or both (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 1999).
However, after the first antibiotics were approved by FDA for use in livestock, concerns arouse about the effects of this practice on human health....