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Today marks the third annual publication of the Chain Reaction report, a scorecard of the 25 largest fast food and fast casual restaurants’ use of meat and poultry raised without antibiotics....This is good news, since the use of antibiotics in agriculture is a massive human health issue. “The threat to public health from the overuse of antibiotics in food animals is real and growing,” says Dr.
Still, around 70% of medically important antibiotics–those that are needed to treat people–are used in farm animals, not humans, and their overuse in agriculture is one of the major reasons that antibiotics are becoming less effective, making it more likely that people can die from routine infections. By 2050, if business continues as usual, an estimated 10 million people could die every year from a drug-resistant disease. A new report explains how farms could fix their end of the problem.
The antibiotic resistance crisis is largely a numbers game. Every time antibiotics are used in humans and animals, the risk for emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria goes up. And in the United States, far too little is being done to reduce the number of antibiotics used in food-producing animals. That's according to a new report today from group of physicians, veterinarians, and infectious disease researchers convened by the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Leading physicians, veterinarians and other experts outline key steps for policymakers, food companies and food purchasers, and medical groups to help tackle the antibiotic resistance crisis
