Drugged Cows

Who knew that rather than going to the doctor to get a prescription for antibiotics all you need to do is to sink your teeth into a juicy T-bone.

From soon to be gone Gourmet...

Here’s a novel idea: Only administer powerful antibiotics to farm animals when they actually need them. United States Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) introduced legislation that would restrict the use of seven classes of antibiotics to cases where an animal is sick. Currently, farmers routinely feed antibiotics to perfectly healthy animals because the drugs speed up growth and improve the efficiency with which the animals covert feed to body mass. Prescriptions are not required.

Slaughter’s bill, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act comes in the wake of a growing body of research indicating that the willy-nilly feeding of antibiotics to animals leads to the evolution of drug-resistant microbes. These “superbugs” can migrate from hog farms, hen houses, and cattle feedlots to infect people.

According to Slaughter more than 80 percent of factory hog farms and cattle feedlots “administer antimicrobials in feed or water for health and growth-promotion reasons.” Something close to 70 percent of the total antibiotics used in the United States are consumed by healthy farm animals.

Organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association have lined up behind the bill, saying that it will preserve the effectiveness of medically important drugs. But powerful agricultural groups are solidly against it.