Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Project - Essay Example Antibiotics use in United States meats is prevalent and this has raised serious health concerns (WGBH Educational Foundation para 1). There is a prevalent about the way the country’s meat is raised today, particularly in regard to the frequent use of antibiotics to keep livestock disease-free in feedlots. Also, antibiotics use in United States meats is used to help livestock grow faster. In order to understand this issue, this paper will investigate the issue and provide analysis of the situation. A federal study by the Federal and Drug Administration in February, 2013 found out that over half of samples of pork chops, ground beef, and ground turkey tested positive for anti-biotic-resistant bacteria strains and therefore adding to the fears that heavy use of antibiotics in livestock is leading to superbugs. The FDA tested 480 samples of these products all collected from United States supermarkets in 2011. These findings confirmed the recent discoveries about antibiotic use in livestock (Valentine para 3). The meat industry in the United States consumes about 80 percent of antibiotics used in the country. This amount is over four times of the amount of antibiotics used by sick Americans. ... The use of antibiotics in livestock is getting out of hands as more and more antibiotics is used in poultry and meat production. It is estimated that about 30 million pounds of antibiotics were sold for poultry and meat production in 2011, compared to about 8 million pounds sold for human use. The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) reported in the Retail Meat Annual Report that antibiotic-resistance bacteria were found in some 39% of chicken, 55% of ground beef, and 69% of pork chops (Christensen para 2). It has also been found out that antibiotics are fed to sick animals and this is completely appropriate. However, antibiotics are put in their feed and water in order to help them compensate for unhygienic conditions and to grow faster (Christensen para 7). This situation is of great health concern because the non-judicious use for feed efficiency and growth promotion poses great public health risks. Antibiotics use in livestock is critically important for tr eatment, control, and prevention of diseases in livestock and not for other purposes. As such, medically important microbial drugs should only be restricted to situations necessary for ensuring animal health and should only be used under supervision of veterinary professionals. It is clear that available and credible data that antibiotic use in the meat industry is on the increase and has hugely overtaken the usage by humans for medical purposes. While it is important to keep livestock healthy, it is more important to ensure humans are healthy. However, it is of grave concern that the meat industry is churning out meat products that are