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Shopping TIps to Avoid Antibiotic Overuse
Shopping Tips to Avoid Antibiotic Overuse
Source
Buying products from animals raised without antibiotics is a smart choice for your family's health. Know
what to look for and read labels carefully to ensure that the meat and poultry you buy is truly from animals
raised without antibiotics.
Organic -
The USDA organic seal guarantees that products come from animals that have not been fed antibiotics for
any purpose. Producers who use the organic seal are subject to an annual inspection to verify this claim.
No antibiotics administered/raised without antibiotics -
Producers may use this claim on labels for meat or poultry products if they provide sufficient documentation
to the USDA demonstrating that the animals were raised without antibiotics. Unlike with the organic label,
however, no third party verification is required.
Natural -
The USDA defines "natural" meat products as those that contain no artificial ingredients or added color and
are only minimally processed. The term does not relate to how animals are raised.
Meat and Antibiotic Resistance—What's the Link?
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise, creating a public health crisis. Patients once effectively treated
for pneumonia, post-operative infections, or food-borne illness may now have to try three or more
antibiotics before finding one that works. Over-prescription of antibiotics by doctors and veterinarians
accounts for some of the problem. It is livestock and poultry producers, however, who use the vast majority
of antibiotics produced in the United States according to UCS estimates.
Beef cattle, hogs and poultry often spend much of their lives in CAFOs (confined animal feeding
operations). The largest CAFOs contain tens of thousands of animals crowded closely together. To
compensate for the stress, poor sanitation, and risk of disease, they are typically fed a daily dose of
antibiotics. Routine antibiotic administration is also used to promote faster growth.
An estimated 70 percent of the antibiotics and related drugs produced in this country are used for these
nontherapeutic purposes in CAFOs. This translates to about 25 million pounds of antibiotics and related
drugs fed every year to livestock that are not sick—almost eight times the amount prescribed by doctors to
treat infections in people.
What can be done about antibiotic overuse in animal agriculture?
The Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have recommended against the use in
food animal production of antibiotics on which human medicine depends. The state of Maine set a positive
example by adopting a meat purchasing policy for state agencies that favors reduced antibiotic use. Tyson
Foods, the nation's largest producer of chicken, recently began raising all of its fresh retail chicken without
antibiotics. Individual consumers can encourage other producers to end the routine feed use of antibiotics
by purchasing meat and poultry from animals raised without them. Still, this problem cannot be solved by
consumer choices alone.
The Food and Drug Administration has the power to recall drugs, and in 2005 the agency banned an
important class of antibiotics in poultry production. However, this case-by-case process is slow and
inadequate to address the overall problem. Therefore, UCS is promoting federal legislation to phase out all
medically important antibiotics for use in food animals that are not sick. Encourage your members of
Congress to support the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, so we can keep antibiotics
working.
Source
Buying products from animals raised without antibiotics is a smart choice for your family's health. Know
what to look for and read labels carefully to ensure that the meat and poultry you buy is truly from animals
raised without antibiotics.
Organic -
The USDA organic seal guarantees that products come from animals that have not been fed antibiotics for
any purpose. Producers who use the organic seal are subject to an annual inspection to verify this claim.
No antibiotics administered/raised without antibiotics -
Producers may use this claim on labels for meat or poultry products if they provide sufficient documentation
to the USDA demonstrating that the animals were raised without antibiotics. Unlike with the organic label,
however, no third party verification is required.
Natural -
The USDA defines "natural" meat products as those that contain no artificial ingredients or added color and
are only minimally processed. The term does not relate to how animals are raised.
Meat and Antibiotic Resistance—What's the Link?
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise, creating a public health crisis. Patients once effectively treated
for pneumonia, post-operative infections, or food-borne illness may now have to try three or more
antibiotics before finding one that works. Over-prescription of antibiotics by doctors and veterinarians
accounts for some of the problem. It is livestock and poultry producers, however, who use the vast majority
of antibiotics produced in the United States according to UCS estimates.
Beef cattle, hogs and poultry often spend much of their lives in CAFOs (confined animal feeding
operations). The largest CAFOs contain tens of thousands of animals crowded closely together. To
compensate for the stress, poor sanitation, and risk of disease, they are typically fed a daily dose of
antibiotics. Routine antibiotic administration is also used to promote faster growth.
An estimated 70 percent of the antibiotics and related drugs produced in this country are used for these
nontherapeutic purposes in CAFOs. This translates to about 25 million pounds of antibiotics and related
drugs fed every year to livestock that are not sick—almost eight times the amount prescribed by doctors to
treat infections in people.
What can be done about antibiotic overuse in animal agriculture?
The Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have recommended against the use in
food animal production of antibiotics on which human medicine depends. The state of Maine set a positive
example by adopting a meat purchasing policy for state agencies that favors reduced antibiotic use. Tyson
Foods, the nation's largest producer of chicken, recently began raising all of its fresh retail chicken without
antibiotics. Individual consumers can encourage other producers to end the routine feed use of antibiotics
by purchasing meat and poultry from animals raised without them. Still, this problem cannot be solved by
consumer choices alone.
The Food and Drug Administration has the power to recall drugs, and in 2005 the agency banned an
important class of antibiotics in poultry production. However, this case-by-case process is slow and
inadequate to address the overall problem. Therefore, UCS is promoting federal legislation to phase out all
medically important antibiotics for use in food animals that are not sick. Encourage your members of
Congress to support the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, so we can keep antibiotics
working.