It’s not entirely clear why antibiotics influence livestock growth. The term “antibiotic growth promoter” describes the administration of antibiotics at a low, sub therapeutic dose as a preventative measure. The agricultural sector desperately needs alternatives to maintain animal health without detrimental consequences to human health. Most are in Europe only a fraction of countries in Africa and the Americas have taken these steps. This is because when humans consume meat or chicken, we ingest not only the antibiotics added to animal feed, but also antibiotic resistant bacteria.Ī 2018 joint report by the WHO, Food and Agriculture organisation and World Organisation for Animal Health found that only 42% of countries have limited their use as growth promoters. Some countries are doing this by banning the inclusion of antibiotics in animal feed as growth promoters. One way to address this crisis is to cut back on the unnecessary use of antibiotics. Common bacterial infections could once again become frequent killers. Without urgent action, the world is heading for a post-antibiotic era. Resistance to antibiotics leads to a situation in which previously treatable infections are becoming harder – and sometimes impossible – to treat. Globally it is estimated that antibiotic-resistant bacteria kill between 700,000 and several million people every year.

There are two reasons for this: the overuse and misuse of antibiotics by humans, and the introduction of antibiotics to agriculture.ĭuring 2021’s World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) repeated a warning it had issued before: antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels globally. However, bacteria have become increasingly resistant to these treatments. In the nearly 100 years since then, scientists have discovered numerous other antibiotics that have saved billions of lives. In 1928, microbiologist Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin was hailed as a scientific breakthrough.

The animal i have become