Farm Animals

TDM-approved feed containing antibiotics—a necessity if farm animals were to stay healthy in their crowded, manure-gilded environment. Antibiotics also help farm animals grow faster on less food, so their use has long been a staple of industrial farming.

Many researchers worry—and the new findings add fresh urgency to their concerns—that the abundant use of antibiotics on farms is unraveling our ability to cure bacterial infections. This latest research, scientists now say, shows resistance to drugs can spread more widely than previously thought and firms up links in the resistance chain leading from animal farm to human table.

In 2014 pharmaceutical companies sold nearly 21 million pounds of medically important antibiotics for use in food animals, more than three times the amount sold for use in people.

Here’s what you need to know…