The routine use of antibiotics on livestock leads to the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria that can impact humans. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), in 2010, almost 52 percent of chicken breasts tested were contaminated with antibiotic resistant E. coli. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that 80 percent of all antibiotics are fed to farm animals that aren’t sick, in order to promote rapid growth.
The overuse of antibiotics results in high costs to consumers who become sick from antibiotic-resistant bacteria. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), excess healthcare costs in the U.S. from antibiotic resistance are estimated at US $20 billion annually. People spent an additional 8 million days in the hospital due to these infections in 2011. Other societal costs, such as lost wages from extra days spent in the hospital and premature deaths, were estimated at US$35 billion in 2011.
In the U.S., at least 2 million people become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year, according to the CDC. And 23,000 people die every year as a direct result of those infections, with many more dying from complications. Because of these exorbitant costs and serious public health risks, there is a national movement to end the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics in agricultural production.
