Farm animals consume nearly half of all antibiotics used worldwide, warns the Save Our Antibiotics alliance, comprising Compassion in World Farming, Sustain and the Soil Association.
Routine antibiotic use is associated with intensive livestock, where weaning is often early and large numbers of birds or animals are kept in close confinement. This gives resistant strains of bacteria an ideal opportunity to develop.
There is a real possibility that diseases which could once be routinely cured with antibiotics will once again become fatal. Speaking of a “post-antibiotic era” World Health Organisation director-general Dr Margaret Chan has warned that: “…many common infections will no longer have a cure and, once again, kill unabated.”
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