Antibiotics in Agriculture
Antibiotics in agriculture refers to the use of these drugs in livestock farming to promote animal growth and prevent diseases. Concerns have been raised about the potential environmental and human health impacts of antibiotic use in agriculture, including the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the presence of antibiotic residues in the environment. This practice is a significant issue in the global agricultural industry.
5 Key excerpts on "Antibiotics in Agriculture"
eBook - ePubAntibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in the Environment
Volume 1 in the Advances in Environmental Pollution Research series
- Muhammad Zaffar Hashmi, Muhammad Zaffar Hashmi(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Elsevier(Publisher)
...Patients can talk to their health care providers about when antibiotics are needed and when they are not. These conversations should include information on patients' risk for infections by antibiotic-resistant bacteria (National Vaccine Advisory Committee, 2016). Similarly, use of antibiotics and antimicrobial agents should be minimized in livestock and in plants to combat antibiotic resistance. In the United States, about 80% of the antibiotics are used in the farming, agriculture, and aquaculture (Hollis and Ahmed, 2013). The total sale of antibiotics for therapeutic purpose in the field of veterinary medicine in 10 European countries during 2007 varied from 18 to 180 mg/kg biomass (Grave et al., 2010). Antibiotics are given to the animals to promote growth, due to which bacteria are exposed to low quantity of antibiotics for a long period of time and as a result, antibiotic resistant strains develop in the animals. For this, WHO recommends the farmers and food industry to not use antibiotics as a growth promoter. Similarly, antibiotics should not be used to prevent diseases in healthy animals (World Health Organization, 2019). Inappropriate use of antibiotics in plants and agriculture promotes the emergence of antibiotic resistance as well. Use of antimicrobial agents in plants are usually distributed in the soil and water system and have a great impact on the environment, animal and human resistomes (Thanner et al., 2016). One of the studies from China detected antibiotic-resistance genes tetX, blaCTX-M, and sul1 and sul2 in the endophytic bacteria isolated from pak choi (Brassica chinensis L.) when the plant was exposed to tetracycline, cephalexin, and sulfamethoxazole in order to promote its growth (Zhang et al., 2017). This indicates the potential risk of overuse of antibiotics. In conclusion, the prescription of inappropriate antibiotics should be reduced in humans, animals and in plants...
eBook - ePub- José-Luis Capelo-Martínez, Gilberto Igrejas, José-Luis Capelo-Martínez, Gilberto Igrejas(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
...Indeed, it has been argued that in some low‐income countries, antibiotic consumption increase is mainly a compensation of the lack of efficient programs of vaccination and sanitation (Laxminarayan et al. 2016). In turn, inadequate antibiotics prescription is associated with the uncertainty in diagnosis (e.g. frequently to treat upper respiratory tract infections caused by viruses), motivating the prescription of an unnecessary broad‐spectrum antibiotic, with an incorrect dosage or duration (Starrels et al. 2009 ; Om et al. 2016). Notoriously, these situations are not necessarily related with the country development index. In hospitals, the excessive use of broad‐spectrum antibiotics is leading to dangerous and almost difficult to treat infections. However, the lack of or delayed access to antibiotics still kills more people than resistant infections (CDDEP 2015). The simultaneous increase of the per capita income and population growth have been driving pressure for availability of animal protein, and consequently, the need to use antibiotics to optimize intensive animal/aquaculture farming. Antibiotics and other antimicrobials have been extensively used in livestock animals and aquaculture not only to treat diseases but mainly to improve growth or to prevent infections (FAO 2016 ; Liu et al. 2017). As a consequence, the utilization of antibiotics in animal farming (e.g. poultry, swine, and cattle) is higher than human consumption (Figure 10.1 a), constituting up to 70% of the annual consumption of antibiotics in each country (FDA 2015). Although with a smaller impact, antibiotics are used also to control diseases and pests in household pets and agriculture crops, respectively (Lloyd 2007 ; Prescott 2008 ; CDDEP 2015)...
eBook - ePubAntibiotic Resistance
Mechanisms and New Antimicrobial Approaches
- Kateryna Kon, Mahendra Rai, Kateryna Kon, Mahendra Rai(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
...Because these systems exert tremendous stress on animals, antibiotics are extensively used in food animals reared in such production systems to prevent disease, maintain overall health, and promote growth. Currently, global antimicrobial usage by animals is approximately double that in humans. 130 In the United States, the use of antimicrobials in the food animal industry accounts for approximately 80% of annual antimicrobial usage. 131 The majority of antimicrobials are administered prophylactically at subtherapeutic levels, thereby creating a conducive environment for the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance microbes in food animals. 132 A substantial fraction of the antimicrobials used in food animals overlap with the antimicrobials used in human medicine during surgeries, organ transplantation, and treatment of infections, 133 potentially leading to major public health implications. Studies have shown a close association between the prevalence of antibiotic resistance microbes and administration of antibiotics in animals. 134, 135 A recent study from European countries, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, revealed a significant correlation between the consumption of eight classes of antimicrobials (ie, fluoroquinolones, streptomycin, amphenicols, gentamicin, tetracycline, sulfonamides, aminopenicillins, and cephalosporins) and the prevalence of resistant commensal E. coli in poultry, pigs, and cattle. 136 Plant-derived antimicrobials are being tested as alternatives for antibiotics for both growth promotion and disease prevention in food animals. Several studies have shown the efficacy of in-feed supplementation of plant compounds such as trans -cinnamaldehyde, eugenol, carvacrol, and thymol in reducing the colonization of foodborne pathogens, including Salmonella Enteritidis and Campylobacter sp...
- Frank M. Aarestrup, Stefan Schwarz, Lina Maria Cavaco, Jianzhong Shen, Stefan Schwarz, Lina Maria Cavaco, Jianzhong Shen(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- ASM Press(Publisher)
...This was the major focus of regulations of use in food animals in those decades, and there is still confusion in some quarters about the difference between residues and resistance. (vii) The public health impacts resulting from the development of resistance, and especially because of transmissible resistance, have been a major battleground between agriculture and medicine for nearly 50 years. (viii) The resistance crisis in human medicine has led to unprecedented concern at the highest political levels globally about the threat of resistance to humanity, to an unprecedented focus on stewardship, and to major ongoing reduction and ongoing changes in agricultural use of antibiotics, at least in the developed world. (ix) The science and practices supporting optimal antimicrobial drug use in animals and in humans has developed relatively slowly and is not complete. DISCOVERY OF ANTIBIOTICS AND EARLY USAGE Antimicrobial drugs were introduced for animal (and human) use with a minimum of controlled experimental studies, so that from the start of their use there were frequent calls to move from the wonder to the science. As in human medicine, much of the early dosage used was empirical and based on inadequately controlled small-scale trials (2, 3), so that there was a “confusing hodge-podge of widely divergent optimum dose-ranges for the many livestock diseases allegedly amenable to the activity of penicillin” (4). In the United States such empiricism led to a licensed dosage of penicillin G in cattle that was clearly inadequate. It took four or five decades before the licensed drug dosage was more scientifically determined, based on quantitative understanding of the interaction of drug with the target microorganism (dosage, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters, in vitro susceptibility) as well as clinical data (Table 1)...
eBook - ePubHandbook of Natural Toxins
Food Poisoning
- Anthony Tu, Anthony Tu(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The challenges of population growth have led to increased efforts to find resources to enhance animal food production to its maximum by employing all available means known to scientists. It has been claimed by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology that without the use of antibiotics in food animals, the efficiency of weight gains will be reduced and the methods of raising animals would become less efficient. In recent years, public health concern over different aspects of drug use in veterinary medicine and the presence of drug residues in foods of animal origin has grown rapidly. In addition to antibiotics, many other chemicals are used in animal husbandry that may be transferred to food products of animal origin (Huber, 1971). This chapter shall focus on a discussion of the use and effects of important sulfonamides and antibiotics as they relate to medical and veterinary practice. II. THERAPEUTIC USE OF ANTIMICROBIAL DRUGS IN ANIMALS In a report by a joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO, 1984) expert consultation committee, the term “veterinary drug” was defined as any substance applied or administered to any food-producing animal, such as meat- or milk-producing animals, poultry, fish, or bees, whether used for therapeutic, prophylactic, or diagnostic purposes or for modification of physiological functions, and for prevention and treatment of diseases in food-producing animals. Sulfonamides and modern antibiotics are widely used for the treatment of many localized and generalized infections in animals. However, the search for newer and better drugs for use on entire herds or flocks of animals that can be administered through feedstuffs or drinking water is a continuous process. It is estimated that over 100 million kg of these drugs are being used worldwide annually (Steele and Beran, 1984)...
