Felicia Lamb's reading response to "Antibiotic, Animals, and the Resistant Gene Pool" in The Antibiotic Paradox

This topic of antibiotic treatment in animals is very interesting to me. I come from a family of vet, and my dad (who has past away) never really had much to say about it, but my brother and sister in law are worried about long term and evolutionary effects this type of "treatment" will have on these animals such as cattle and poultry. I never really understood why antibiotic treatment was causing our livestock to grow more since antibiotics are not growth hormones or even close in chemical make-up to growth hormones, but when it said that the antibiotics eliminate the norma flora in the intestine that compete for the nutrients the animal intakes that made total sense.

On page 157 MRSA is brought up as a drug that was structurally similar to vancomycin, avoparcin, had developed resistant strains of enterococci in the early 90s, little did they know at the time that MRSA, that is treated with vacomycin, was going to become a huge health hazard in health care 10 years later. I have worked in hospitals caring for MRSA infected patients, and the precautions that are taken are extreme as to decrease the spread of this sometimes life threatening infection. And frankly, I am more than happy to take the extra time to protect myself because this infection is not fun, and in the elderly population tends the be the beginning of the end, hence the extreme precautions. I love how the authors talk about MRSA incidence being low, but when was the last time these people walk onto a geriatric care floor of a hospital?

I find it amazing that bacteria resistance and food illnesses can be track back to the specific farm the food came from...WOW

I do not totally understand how the chickens that were in the experiment where some were fed antibiotic supplemented feed and other not, and how the antibiotic supplemented chickens developed resistance to not only tetracycline, but also to ampicillin, streptomycin, and sulfonimides. This is scary when you think about these resistances being in the food we eat and passing onto us. Since most if not all of the antibiotics used on animals are also used and effective on us, this seem like a practice that should be eliminated. England has erradicated antibiotic supplemented feeds, Canada has put also many restrictions, but the United States is way behind on this one. As a country we pride ourselves as being on the cutting edge of everything but can I just say when it come to this we are in the stone age. I now understand why my aunt who is an naturalist and only eat organic food does that...I may go to organic meat at least.

On that note, I am amazed at how much money my aunt spends on her food especially meat, but when I read about the Food Animal Concerns Trust, I now understand why 1. most farmers do not raise organically and 2. why it is so expensive, because production is smaller quantities...but with higher quality!! Interesting that chicken who are "free-range" chicken tend to produce eggs that are almost Samonella free, but I will still keep cooking my eggs all the ways with no jiggle. Love the last paragraph of this chapter "better educated consumer will demand products from animals not raised on antibiotics needed for human treatment. Only then will we see definitive changes in thsi area of antibiotic usage" Thats great, and makes me want to demand organic meats and vegetables.