In the past several decades, industrial livestock producers have relied on low doses of antibiotics contained in animal feed to maintain the health of their animals.
According to these farmers, low-dose antibiotics are necessary to keep livestock healthy and affordable. While the use of low-dose antibiotics has been shown to encourage growth, reduce disease among animals and even decrease instances of food borne pathogens, the practice may also contribute to antibiotic resistance.
The overuse of antibiotics in humans is a serious public health concern, and the problem may be exacerbated by the indiscriminate use of low-dose antibiotics in livestock production. When a population of bacteria is exposed to low levels of antibiotics, most of the bacteria are killed, but a few microbes bearing drug-resistant genes can survive the low dose.
In humans, this phenomenon is usually caused by the over-prescription of antibiotics or the misuse of drugs by patients. Taking antibiotics for a viral infection and failing to complete an antibiotic regimen both contribute to drug resistance by giving resistant strains of bacteria a better chance to survive and reproduce.
Similarly, the constant low doses of antibiotics in livestock threaten to create drug-resistant pathogens in animal populations. Scientists are still debating whether these resistant strains pose a threat to human health, but any claim regarding antibiotic resistance warrants serious attention.
Modern factory farming necessitates the use of low-dose antibiotics to preserve animal health under a set of decidedly unhealthy conditions. Whenever humans, pigs or any other potential hosts are kept in close quarters, the likelihood of developing a disease increases as the hosts interact and inadvertently transfer their microbes. Industrial livestock production compounds these problems by interrupting the production of animals’ natural immune systems and confining massive numbers of animals in unhygienic conditions.
Factory farming is clearly an animal rights disaster, but if the claims regarding antibiotic resistance in animals are true, it could also be a public health concern. Fortunately, if some of these farming conditions are modified, the need for low-dose antibiotics can be drastically reduced.
In Denmark low-dose antibiotics have been restricted since 1995, but more humane farming practices have allowed the nation to remain the world’s leading exporter of pork with only small increases in pig mortality rates and increased overall production.
Danish farmers leave piglets with their mothers for a few extra weeks, which naturally bolsters their immune systems, before transferring them to larger, more hygienic enclosures to mature. These more humane conditions result in healthy pigs without the use of low-dose antibiotics, which, according to a study conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, constitute more than 70 percent of antibiotic use in the U.S.
While most American livestock producers rely on low-dose antibiotics, some farmers in the U.S. do not. Supporting these producers is one of the best ways to discourage the use of low-dose antibiotics in livestock production. The organic food movement has already sent a serious message to farmers, who have responded by producing more organic food for eager consumers.
Livestock labeled by the United States Department of Agriculture as “organic,” “100 percent organic” or “no antibiotics used” can never be treated with antibiotics. Other labels, including “antibiotic free” or “natural,” are not regulated by the USDA and are intentionally misleading to consumers. All meat sold in the U.S. is technically “antibiotic free” because livestock producers are required to allow antibiotics to leave an animal’s system before processing.
Concerned consumers should support producers who meet USDA guidelines if they want to see an end to low-dose antibiotics in agriculture.
Andrew Shockey is a 20 year-old biological engineering sophomore from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_Ashockey.
 
_____
Contact Andrew Shockey at ashockey@lsureveille.com