Antibiotics in Animal Feed May Endanger Kids, Doctors Warn

We have known about this for years, and it has been ignored, as usual, for the sake of money.

As someone said on Facebook, we live in a pay later society. We are doing the same on climate disruption.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antibiotics-in-animal-feed-may-endanger-kids-doctors-warn/?WT.mc_id=SA_HLTH_20151117

By Lisa Rapaport
(Reuters Health)
Nov. 16, 2015

Overuse of antibiotics in animal feed is making it harder for doctors to treat life-threatening infections in young children, a report from U.S. pediatricians warns.

The report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says the widespread practice of giving antibiotics to healthy livestock to promote growth and prevent disease among animals is making the drugs ineffective when they are needed to treat infections in people.

“The antibiotics that are fed to the animals lead to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the animal,” study co-author Dr. Theoklis Zaoutis of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia said by email. “These bacteria can then be spread to other animals, the environment and to humans.”

More than two million Americans become ill with antibiotic-resistant infections each year, and 23,000 die as a result, Zaoutis and co-author Dr. Jerome Paulson report in the journal Pediatrics. Paulson formerly chaired the executive committee of the AAP’s Council on Environmental Health,

They estimate that national costs to the U.S. healthcare system attributable to antibiotic resistant infections run from $21 billion to $34 billion annually.

Infants and children are affected by antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the food supply, direct contact with animals and exposure in the environment, the researchers report.

For most infections, incidence was highest among children under age five, according to data the researchers cited from Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network.