U.S. Tightens Rules on Antibiotics Use for Livestock

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Table of Contents

Summary
Questions
Works Cited

Summary

This article addresses antibiotic resistance in livestock in America (Harris, 1). The article appears in the New York Times and highlights the new regulations that farmers must adhere to before getting a prescription on antibiotics for animals. According to the article, on average, 2 million individuals become ill and an estimated 100,000 die from nosocomial infections resulting from microbial resistance to antibiotics. According to the article close to 80 percent of human antibiotics sold in the US are also used to treat animals (Harris, 1).

The FDA has proposed new rules that bar farmers from administering antibiotics to farm animals such as pigs and cattle. The other regulation the FDA is putting in place requires drug manufacturers to modify drug labels to include a prescription. These new restrictions are in line with the Obama administration directive to restrict the use of antibiotics in agriculture. The new law has been both welcomed and criticized. Critics of this FDA regulation ascertain that, because the regulations are to be enforced voluntarily, most farmers, especially small scale will have a hard time implementing the changes. On the other hand, supporters of the rule argue that the restriction will reduce drug resistance in America (Harris, 1).

Questions

How Does Antibiotic Endurance Happen?

Antibiotic resistance is a regular occurrence that has been happening from the time past of microorganisms such as bacteria. Research shows that some bacteria sequestered from glaciers, and that had not been in contact with humans or animals were found to be resilient to several existing antibiotics. In addition, research shows that a significant level of natural bacterial endurance to antibiotics must consequently be estimated but living microbial cells will be those that are of least sensitivity or are resilient. It is hard to calculate the rapidity of resistance in microorganisms as it is determined by among other things, the category of the drugs (antibiotic), the class of microorganisms, and the degree of contact the microorganisms have to drugs or antibiotics besides the capability of the resilient bacteria to endure and reproduce (Mayers, 25).

Following the development of microbial resistance, the particular microorganisms could become extinct, or the resilient strains may be substituted by vulnerable microorganisms. Although current research has made tremendous gains in the area of microbial resistance to antibiotics, there is still considerable information that is unfamiliar about what ensues to drug resistance when it advances.

Literature on ways to combat drug resistance indicates that it is essential to use drugs especially antibiotics at the precise prescription amount, as it ensures that the correct amount of the antibiotics reach the location of contamination within an adequate duration of time to guarantee retrieval from illness. If the accurate dosage is not administered, or if the antibiotic course is not finalized, several bacteria may persist and may be less vulnerable to treatment using the same antibiotics a second time. The less susceptible microorganisms replicate and their numbers proliferate within the microbial populace in total.

What Are the Consequences of Antibiotic Endurance?

When resilient microorganisms cause contagions, the range of drugs or antibiotics that can be employed to manage the infections or illnesses is narrowed. If instantaneously known, the clinician or veterinarian can apply other drugs or antibiotics with slight or no jeopardy to the patient or animal. If the resistance is not known until the course of the first drug fails to control the illness or infection, the interval between first diagnosis and the initiation of effective treatment can end up in needless suffering and a worsening of the patient’s state (Criswell).

How Comparable Are The Antibiotics Spent In Domesticated Animals To Those Spent In Humans?

Numerous infections in domesticated animals mimic those that originate from man, so it is no wonder that certain drugs used to combat infectious microorganisms in man are similarly useful in healing animal diseases and infections. Nevertheless, many chemical compounds employed in treating farm animals are dissimilar from those employed in humans. However, where there is a biochemical comparison in the drugs there is no proof that human beings’ use of drugs is in any manner influenced by their use in farm animals (Mayers, 25).

What Consequence Would Outlawing the Use of Particular Antibiotics In Farm Animals Have on Antibiotic Resilient In Humans?

There is no clear answer to this question. Nonetheless, broad exploration continues to be done in America and through the globe with the sole purpose of offering humanity an answer to the query. Despite the mystery, surrounding antibiotic and drug resistance, all the existing substantiation proposes that the usage of antibiotics and other drugs in farm animals has had a slight or no effect on the occurrence of antibiotic resilient in human contagions with microorganisms in the genus Enterococcus being transmitted by animals.

Undeniably, current research indicates that microbial resistance in human Enterococcus microorganisms to drugs in the antibiotic class, used in the last twenty-five years in fowls and other farm animals all over the globe is static. This is not astonishing because the enterococci strains from farm animals do not last in the human intestine. In the existence of man, it has protractedly been recognized that some genera and classes of microorganisms such as bacteria, for instance, Campylobacter and Salmonella can be transmitted from farm animals to humans (National Office of Animal Health).

Works Cited

Criswell, Daniel. The Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance. 2011. Web.

Harris, Gardiner. “U.S. Tightens Rules on Antibiotics Use for Livestock.” The New York Times. 2012: 1. Print.

Mayers, Douglas. Antimicrobial Drug Resistance: Mechanisms of Drug Resistance. Totowa, New Jersey: Springer, 2008. Print.

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