The Basics

To help prevent the development of "superbugs" that are resistant to antibiotics, doctors commonly warn their patients that antibiotics should only be used for bacterial infections, and should be taken at the proper dosage for the full course of treatment.

Pigs and other industrial farm animals are commonly given low doses of antibiotics in their daily feed.

Industrial farms violate these medical principles every day by feeding healthy animals low doses of antibiotics over long periods of time in order to speed up their growth and to compensate for unsanitary living conditions. This creates the ideal breeding ground for dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria to thrive and spread.

This misuse of antibiotics on industrial farms threatens the health of farm workers, communities and the public.

The Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming is working to save antibiotics and protect the food supply and human health by banning the use of antibiotics in the production of animals raised for food when disease is not present.

Did you know?

• Up to 70 percent of U.S. antibiotics go to animals raised on industrial farms that aren't sick, to offset crowding and poor sanitation. This practice promotes the development of deadly strains of drug-resistant bacteria that can spread to humans.
  
  
• Penicillins, tetracyclines, macrolides, sulfonamides and other antibiotic intended for humans are typically pre-mixed in poultry and livestock feed or added to drinking water, often giving food animals constant low doses of antibiotics over much of their entire lives.
  
  
• Ninety percent of hogs and 97 percent of poultry are grown on factory farms in the United States.
  
  
• Food-borne illnesses are becoming more difficult to treat due to the increase in antibiotic-resistant strains and the decreased effectiveness of antibiotics used as a first-line defense.
  
  
• Consumers are exposed to resistant bacteria through the handling and consumption of contaminated meat, through produce that has been exposed to resistant bacteria in soil and water, or through direct contact with the bacteria in the environment.
  
  
• Food-borne bacteria are more dangerous in their antibiotic-resistant forms, because they are harder to treat and may require multiple antibiotic treatments, longer hospital stays and other interventions before finally being eliminated.
  
  
• A recent study found that antibiotic-resistant bacteria generated $16 to $26 billion dollars per year in extra costs to the United States healthcare system.
  
  
• Each year 300,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths are caused by food contaminated by dangerous pathogens and bacteria such as Salmonella and E. Coli, which are increasingly becoming antibiotic resistant.
  
  
• There are around 2.4 million Campylobacter infections in the U.S. and about half of these are resistant to at least one antibiotic. Nearly 14 percent of these infections are resistant to at least two drugs.
  
  

For more details on how antibiotic use in food production threatens human health, visit Our Work