9 Facts About Antibiotics And Its Use In Farm Animals

Dayna, Milos, and Adam (The MAD Cows)

1. Antibiotics and antimicrobial drugs are not the same thing!

Via Medicine, C. F. (n.d.). Guidance for Industry - FDA's Strategy on Antimicrobial Resistance - Questions and Answers. Retrieved October 02, 2017, from fda.gov

Antimicrobial drugs include all drugs that work against a variety of microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. An antibiotic drug is effective against bacteria and also known as an antibacterial drug. All antibiotics are antimicrobials, but not all antimicrobials are antibiotics.

2. Antibiotics are used in livestock to treat clinical illness, to prevent and control disease, and sometimes as a growth promotant.

Via Landers, T. F., Cohen, B., Wittum, T. E., & Larson, E. L. (2012). A Review of Antibiotic Use in Food Animals: Perspective, Policy, and Potential. Retrieved October 02, 2017, from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

In addition to using antibiotics to treat the already sick animals on large scale livestock farms, antibiotics have also become very important for other reasons. With the so many animals, it is a lot easier for one of them to become ill and possibly infect a large number of the other animals on that farm. For this reason, farmers have been using antibiotics in smaller quantities as a preventative measure to keep their herds healthy. It has also been shown that giving antibiotics has positive effects on growth and feed efficiency. This means that we are able to produce the same amount of products with less inputs like feed and water by using small quantities of antibiotics as a feed additive.

3. As of January 1st, the way we use antibiotics in the food industry completely changed.

Via Medicine, C. F. (n.d.). Guidance for Industry - FDA's Strategy on Antimicrobial Resistance - Questions and Answers. Retrieved October 02, 2017, from fda.gov

The way antibiotics are used in the animal industry varies quite a bit depending on where you are in the world. For example, antibiotic use in Europe is regulated much more than it was here before the new FDA rulings came about. These new guidelines are working to phase out medically important drugs used for production purposes and to bring therapeutic use under the oversight of licensed veterinarians.

4. Antibiotic Resistance is serious and a potentially unavoidable reality of the use of antibiotics.

cdc.gov / Via O'Neill, J. (Ed.). (2014). Antimicrobial Resistance: Tackling a crisis for the health and wealth of nations. The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from amr-review.org

We have enjoyed an unprecedented time in history where were able to treat infections from bacteria which would have been deadly at any other time in history. Unfortunately we have been fighting evolution. Even the scientist who discovered antibiotics, Alexander Fleming noticed that the bacteria would develop resistance if antibiotics were misused in his lab. Bacteria produce a new generation about every 20 minutes and with each generation there are chances that the resistant strain would arise. In fact in only two years after it was discovered, Penicillin already became ineffective against a strain of bacteria. It took 16 years for the bacteria resistant to Vancomycin to emerge, 13 years for Imipenem resistance, and one of our newest antibiotic, Daptomycin, was defeated by bacterial resistance in about one year. Most pharmaceutical companies no longer want to invest in development of new antibiotics realizing that the bacteria will ultimately defeat any drug they market making profit margin virtually non-existent. Roughly 23000 people in the US and Europe die from the infections of resistant strains of bacteria, a small fraction of 700000 who die worldwide every year, and the number is likely to rise. Antibiotic resistance can arise from the misuse of antibiotics such as exposing bacteria to a low dose of antibiotics in the environment. Resistance can occur naturally as well as it can being passed between species of bacteria, which is one reason the use of antibiotics as growth promoters was criticized recently. This is a growing problem which science will have to fix because without antibiotics things like surgeries, chemotherapies, transplants, implants and many more would become too risky to perform. Alexander Fleming revolutionized medicine with antibiotics, without them we can easily be plunged into the world where even a simple scratch can kill.

5. New Antibiotics

Via Concia, E., Mazzaferri, F., & Cordioli, M. (2016, December 15). New antibiotic development: barriers and opportunities. Retrieved October 02, 2017, from italjmed.org

Antibiotics are natural weapons of bacteria in the war of competition between different species of bacteria inhabiting same environment with limited resources. Scientists are now looking in surprising places for new antibiotics in order to combat antibiotic resistance in our hospitals. From deepest caves, where species of bacteria were isolated for millions of years, yet are resistant to all our antibiotics to the depths of the ocean in some of the most inhospitable environments on Earth where competition between microbes for few vital resources is fierce. It is the hope of the scientists that some of these microbes might be producing a substance which is significantly different from our current antibiotics and effective against resistant pathogens. In the sludge of the ocean floor the scientists have found the spores of the fungus from the same genus as the one which has given us Penicillin. The hope is that this or related species of fungus has evolved in the relative isolation to produce antibiotics for which the bacteria is unable to evolve resistance. In the environment where bacteria has been in competition for millions of years and has developed similar resistance to antibiotics as pathogens plaguing humanity, scientists hope to find microbes with adaptations to produce antibiotics with novel mechanism of action. Scientists are also looking in even stranger places, such as skin of frogs or brains of cockroaches which are apparently rich in antibiotic-like substances. However the search is not without hurdles. It is difficult to isolate specific substances, and difficult to culture all of the individual species of microbes. And even when they discover a substance with antibiotic properties, it is far from guaranteed that it would be effective drug or one without side effects to the host organism. Nonetheless, in order to stay ahead in the evolutionary arms race between medicine and bacteria, scientists have to be inventive.

6. Scientists have been working on finding alternatives!

Via Allen, H. K., Trachsel, J., Looft, T. and Casey, T. A. (2014), Finding alternatives to antibiotics. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1323: 91–100. doi:10.1111

Some scientists believe the antibiotic arms race to be a futile effort. Bacteria are capable of evolving a resistance to most every antibiotic we can conceivably throw at them. That is why some scientists are looking for completely different methods of fighting bacteria. Some have suggested to attempt to genetically modify bacteria to where they would be harmless to humans. This is not only difficult to achieve, but also carries ethical questions and risk of accidentally producing even worst pathogens. Another suggestion is to use the bacteriophages, viruses which specifically target selected species of bacteria, a sort of fight fire with fire scenario, but one where the host is relatively unscaved. This too is somewhat problematic, as bacteria could develop resistance to these bacteriophages same way they do with antibiotics. This method was used and was relatively successful in treating some topical infections, however it has not seen wider use yet. Another novel approach is to aid the immune system in every way we can, from vaccines to genetically modifying our cells to be better able to fight bacteria. To virtually any disease, there is a group of people who are naturally immune, scientists are researching this and hoping to identify features of immunity and genes which grant these people protection against pathogens. In the most sci-fi way yet, future of medicine might reside with robotics, nano-robotics to be precise. Tiny robots the size of bacteria already are being designed which potentially could target individual bacteria, which could deliver medicine directly to them or physically capture or destroy individual bacteria. Future will likely be one where we will have various tools to fight disease which used in combination would guarantee victory for humanity.

7. Even though some restaurants and food companies are moving to using meat that isn’t ever treated with antibiotics, it brings no real difference to the final animal product because of a thing called withdrawal period.

Via Nisha, A. (n.d.). Antibiotic Residues - A Global Health Hazard. Veterinary World, 1(12), 375-377. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from ejmanager.com

A withdrawal period is the period of time it takes for all traces of an antibiotic to become ineffective and broken down by the body of a particular animal. Withdrawal time is determined by species and type of medication administered. Since farmers can’t process their meat or milk until the withdrawal period has passed, there is no trace of antibiotics left in the product. So meat coming from a farm that uses antibiotics and one that doesn’t will still have the same level of antibiotics in their product when the animal is processed, none! While certain companies and restaurants use “Antibiotic Free” as a marketing edge, it really doesn’t change anything about the animal product that they’re selling. The “Antibiotic Free” display is mainly to attract consumer that don’t fully understand antibiotic use in animal production.

8. Different aspects of the animal agriculture industry use antibiotics in different manners.

Via Mathew, A. G., Cissell, R., & Liamthong, S. (2007). Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria Associated with Food Animals: A United States Perspective of Livestock Production. Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, 4(2), 115-133. doi:10.1089

Dairy farmers only use antibiotics in a therapeutic manner to treat disease in their cows. Dairy farmers want to use antibiotics as little as possible, because they can’t use the milk from a cow that is still within her deadline of the withdrawal period. Beef cattle are given antibiotics for therapeutic and some are given for increased performance. Poultry are given antibiotics therapeutically, non therapeutically, and to promote growth. In a 2005 USDA study, 92% of the swine farmers reported that they had used antibiotics as means to promote growth. After the FDA’s ruling that bans non therapeutic use of antibiotics in animals, farm operations will only be able to use them in a manner that prevents/treats illness. These numbers show which sectors of the Animal Agriculture Industry had used antibiotics differently.

9. There are many pros to using antibiotics!

Via Mathew, A. G., Cissell, R., & Liamthong, S. (2007). Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria Associated with Food Animals: A United States Perspective of Livestock Production. Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, 4(2), 115-133. doi:10.1089

Since foodborne pathogens can’t be managed by vaccines, antibiotic-based feed or water additives might be the best route of controlling these pathogens. These pathogens are difficult if not impossible to eradicate from the host animal, so giving the animal access to antibiotics might be the best approach to preventing their spread and limiting their populations in the gut of the animal.

Used feed-based microbials has shown positive results in lowering manure output which has a positive effect on the environment.