Antibiotic use in livestock
Use of antibiotics for any purpose in the husbandry of livestock / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Antibiotic use in livestock?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Antibiotic use in livestock is the use of antibiotics for any purpose in the husbandry of livestock, which includes treatment when ill (therapeutic), treatment of a group of animals when at least one is diagnosed with clinical infection (metaphylaxis[1]), and preventative treatment (prophylaxis). Antibiotics are an important tool to treat animal as well as human disease, safeguard animal health and welfare, and support food safety.[2] However, used irresponsibly, this may lead to antibiotic resistance which may impact human, animal and environmental health.[3][4][5][6]
While levels of use vary dramatically from country to country, for example some Northern European countries use very low quantities to treat animals compared with humans,[7][8] worldwide an estimated 73% of antimicrobials (mainly antibiotics) are consumed by farm animals.[9] Furthermore, a 2015 study also estimates that global agricultural antibiotic usage will increase by 67% from 2010 to 2030, mainly from increases in use in developing BRIC countries.[10]
Increased antibiotic use is a matter of concern as antibiotic resistance is considered to be a serious threat to human and animal welfare in the future, and growing levels of antibiotics or antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment could increase the numbers of drug-resistant infections in both.[11] Bacterial diseases are a leading cause of death and a future without effective antibiotics would fundamentally change the way modern human as well as veterinary medicine is practised.[11][12][13] However, legislation and other curbs on antibiotic use in farm animals are now being introduced across the globe.[14][15][16] In 2017, the World Health Organization strongly suggested reducing antibiotic use in animals used in the food industry.[17]
The use of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes was banned in the European Union from 2006,[18] and the use of sub-therapeutic doses of medically important antibiotics in animal feed and water[19] to promote growth and improve feed efficiency became illegal in the United States on 1 January 2017, through regulatory change enacted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which sought voluntary compliance from drug manufacturers to re-label their antibiotics.[20][21]