Antibiotics in food production animals: cause of human health problems?

Abstract

Whenever antibiotics are used (in people or animals), we know that one of the consequences of their use is that resistance in bacteria can and usually does eventually develop. People become colonised and in some cases ill with bacteria that come across to them via the food chain. These bacteria can be antibiotic resistant. Some of this antibiotic resistance can be to antibiotics that are 'last line' agents in therapy of life threatening infections in people. The development and spread of these multi-resistant bacteria follows the use of last line (or similar) antibiotics in food production animals. Examples include ciprofloxacin resistant strains of Salmonella sp and Campylobacter sp, as well as the vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE). However, many of the driving factors for this antibiotic resistance could be substantially reduced or eliminated without compromising the therapy of sick animals.