Antibiotic Resistance In Poultry

The meat and poultry that we buy from supermarket are not resistant to antibiotics anymore. An antibiotic resistant occurs when antibiotic is used and bacteria can resist to the antibiotic and have more chance to survive.

In 2011, drug makers sold nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics for livestock and 80% of antibiotics were provided for livestock. Farmers who raise chickens and other livestock to treat sick livestock used antibiotics; however, farmers decided to give livestock antibiotics regularly to make them grow faster and bigger so that they can earn more money. It seems to be fine that the farmers fed a small dose of drugs to livestock, but receiving antibiotics for a long time cause livestock becoming antibiotics resistance. Overtaking antibiotics

Along with livestock becomes antibiotic resistant, the number of bacteria grow in the meat and poultry increasing in a huge amount. Antibiotics resistance bacteria usually reside in an animal’s intestines and are excreted in its waste. Therefore, it can be easily transfer via animal waste to soil and water that can pollute the environment and infect other people. Bacteria also can be transfer via farm workers and food processors. For instance, Cipro is the antibiotic used to treat Campylobacter bacteria, which cause food poisoning and can cause chronic problems. In 1996, the FDA approved an antibiotic similar to cipro for use of poultry. By 2001, the Cipro resistance level in human campylobacter cases have reached to 19%. To avoid serving tainted poultry, some fast food chains such as McDonalds and Subway refused to serve these poultry. The bacteria can easily be transferred to human if cooking procedures are not fully followed or without heating meat to proper