"The use of antibiotics anywhere contributes to the emergence of resistance everywhere." 💯
But remember that >70% of all antibiotics globally are administered to farmed animals, the vast majority *not* for acute treatment but at sub-therapeutic levels.
wired.com/story/covid-19…
But remember that >70% of all antibiotics globally are administered to farmed animals, the vast majority *not* for acute treatment but at sub-therapeutic levels.
wired.com/story/covid-19…
While it is absolutely troubling that physicians are having to relax their standards for antibiotic stewardship in this crisis, the uptick in human use of antibiotics due to COVID is a drop in the bucket relative to their chronic use levels in farmed animals as growth promoters.
Some countries have tried in recent years to limit the use of designated "medically important" antibiotics in farming, but the fact remains that resistance that emerges on animal farms has immediate and direct implications for resistance among human pathogens.
From a JHU prof emeritus:
“[W]hen you put animals in crowded, unsanitary conditions and use low-dose antibiotics for disease prevention, you set up a perfect incubator for spontaneous mutations... That’s the biggest human health risk of factory farms.”
vox.com/future-perfect…
“[W]hen you put animals in crowded, unsanitary conditions and use low-dose antibiotics for disease prevention, you set up a perfect incubator for spontaneous mutations... That’s the biggest human health risk of factory farms.”
vox.com/future-perfect…
