ending the use of “antibiotic growth promoters”
[And, again - will a Democratic President act on this? Can you really envision a total ban on this stuff by 2006 in the U.S. under a Democratic Party President? By 2010? By 2020?
Now, again: picture a Green President who would NOT make this a priority, preach from the bully pulpit, and pound Congress relentlessly to get it passed?
There, again, is the cruz of the difference: electing a Democrat isn’t going to get us a damn bit closer to reversing the total destruction of the world as we know it. Isn’t going to get us a damn bit closer to a world which is sane and rational and not completely and utterly dominated by corporate lobbyists.
-Thomas]
WHO backs anitbiotic phase-out in feed
By Marc Kaufman
The Washington Post
The World Health Organization will recommend Wednesday that nations phase out the widespread and controversial use of antibiotic growth promoters in animal feed, saying the move will help preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics for medicine and can be done without significant expense or health consequences to farm animals.
Based on a study of Denmark’s experience following a 1998 voluntary ban on antibiotic growth promoters, WHO concluded that under similar conditions the use of low-dosage antibiotics “for the sole purpose of growth promotion can be discontinued.'’
[…]
The report also found that once growth promoters were dropped, the amount of resistant bacteria in pork and chicken declined “dramatically.'’ In chicken, 60 percent to 80 percent of birds had bacteria resistant to three widely-used antibiotics before the ban; afterwards 5 percent to 35 percent of birds had resistant bacteria. The report found a similar decline in bacteria resistant to two antibiotics widely fed to pigs.
[…]
The Danish ban is on all low-dosage antibiotics, whatever their purpose might be. A similar ban will go into effect across the European Union in 2006.
