[darpa_escapee]

For reference, 80% of antibiotics used in the US are used in agriculture [1]. Animals are fed antibiotics to prevent infection, but they’re also fed to animals as “growth promoters” [2].

60% of infectious diseases in humans originate in animals, and 75% of emerging infectious diseases in humans originate in animals [3].

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4638249/

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1804117/

[3] https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/basics/zoonotic-diseases.html

[boldlybold]

Point (2) is no longer true as of 2017 (in the US, 2006 in the EU) [1]. I'm happy to see the FDA getting on top of this regulation. Now let's end careless spraying of antibiotics on crops. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_livestock#Un...

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/health/antibiotics-orange...

[hvidgaard]

Re: Point (2), it's going in the right direction, but at least in Denmark it is very much used in a "preventative" manner in the pork industry. It took a dive when the regulation came into effect, but in the last few years not much have happened, and we still have a MRSA problem out of control.

Independent sources say that more than 90% of all farms with pigs have an MRSA infection. The butcheries reported in 2014 that 88% of all pigs was infected with MRSA. Every 1 in 3 pack of pork is infected and weak and elderly people should be careful with pork in general because of this risk.

[refurb]

There isn’t that much overlap between the antibiotics used to treat human disease and those used in livestock to promote growth.

The use of human antibiotics in livestock has already been banned in the US by the FDA.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-12-19/ant...

[Pyxl101]

It seems horrendous that we would give antibiotics to any livestock in an across-the-board way.

Livestock should only get antibiotics if they come down with an infection and are diagnosed and treated by a veterinarian. If a bunch of the livestock would get sick without preemptive antibiotics then I probably don't think that method of farming should be legal, and I would be glad to pay whatever higher prices would be necessary to abolish it.

[BurningFrog]

Infections were not created by greedy farmers. They occur naturally among all animal populations.

Some quick googling indicates that this practice both increases meat production by 10-30%, and protects animals from a lot of suffering, as they spend their lives mostly healthy.

That said, yeah, we can't keep doing this, and we have to pay the cost. Let's just not pretend there is no cost.

[bayesian_horse]

I've heard the opinion that most antibiotic resistance genes don't seem to originate in agricultural use.

High AB usage is one factor in developing and spreading resistance, but it's way more complicated. For example the resistance genes also have to jump onto a bacterium that is pathogenic...

[tempguy9999]

> I've heard the opinion that most antibiotic resistance genes don't seem to originate in agricultural use.

Maybe true but I don't see the post you're replying to saying that. If you are saying that, a reference to some research showing that would be welcome.

> but it's way more complicated

surely true, but it doesn't mean antibiotic overuse isn't a damn good starting point for resistance to develop.

[drivebyops]

Are the infections happening because of the close proximity that animals are kept in?