Minnesota Farmers Union

(January 15, 2010) - A recent news article paraphrased a comment made by a producer of meat animals as, "The effort to ban antibiotic use in animals is led by activists who want to shut down all animal agriculture."

The assertion was made in response to House and Senate bills, (HR 1549 and S 619, respectively) introduced as the "Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009." The proposed legislation seeks to limit the nontherapeutic use of 7 classes of antibiotics in animals raised for food. It does not restrict the use of these antibiotics for the treatment of disease in these animals. Note the phrase "nontherapeutic use of."

For the last 20 years, every time we have gone to the doctor with a sore throat and asked for an antibiotic, the doctor has done an ear, nose, and throat examination. More often than not we have been told we have the flu-a virus that does not respond to antibiotic treatment-and sent home with the advice to bundle up, use a saline nose spray, and wait for the flu to run its course.