Here's the editorial that Alex Sagady mentioned, forwarded from Nat Garrett
at national.

NY Time Editorial
February 13, 2002
Antibiotics in the Poultry Industry


t was a pleasant surprise to learn this week
that three large poultry companies had greatly reduced
their use of antibiotics in healthy chickens, a move that could help slow
the emergence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria that cause diseases in
humans. Other companies ought to follow the lead of these pioneers, and
Congress ought to ban the use of medically important antibiotics in animal
husbandry except to cure sick animals.


Strong action is needed because many germs that infect humans are growing
resistant to treatment with antibiotics. Such resistance occurs inevitably
over time as an antibiotic kills off susceptible strains of a germ and
leaves only the more resistant strains to proliferate. But in recent
decades the growth of resistance has been increased by overuse of
antibiotics in agriculture, where companies routinely use the drugs to
promote growth on less feed and to prevent disease in healthy animals. As
a result, some germs that infect both animals and humans have become
resistant to antibiotics, and even germs that do not infect humans are
capable of transferring their antibiotic-resistance genes to germs that
do.


That is why the report in Sunday's Times by Marian Burros was so
encouraging. She found that three poultry companies that produce a third
of the chickens consumed by Americans each year (Foster Farms, Perdue
Farms and Tyson Foods) have greatly reduced the use of antibiotics in
healthy chickens and are using them primarily to treat sick chickens.


There is no reason that other poultry producers could not do the same, and
probably the pork and beef industries as well. It is unacceptable that any
industry should use medically important antibiotics for the economic
purpose of fostering growth. Congress and the Food and Drug Administration
need to curtail the use of animal antibiotics that are related to human
medicines.





Erin Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
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