Wednesday, August 13, 2003
WHO urges end of antibiotics
The World Health Organization will recommend today 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."
WHO's findings and recommendation do not require nations to act. But they will add to the growing movement to stop routine use of antibiotics on farms, and to the kind of public pressure that led the McDonald's fast-food chain to recently tell suppliers to cut back on antibiotic growth promoters. WHO officials say that about half of the antibiotics used by livestock growers worldwide are low-dose growth promoters, the type that public health experts say are most likely to promote the growth of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.
More.
posted by chris at 10:59 AM
------------------
|
