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 Antibiotic use in animals is expected to surge by two thirds
globally between 2010 and 2030, while doubling in emerging giants
like China, Brazil, India and Russia, according to a Princeton
University study.
It warned that the practice is pushing us closer to a time when
common infections could become a death sentence because they will no
longer respond to drugs.
Consumption of meat, milk and eggs is growing fast in many
developing and middle-income countries.
Urbanization, increased wealth and changing diets mean industrial
livestock producers are expanding rapidly.
They are relying on antibiotics to keep disease at bay in the
short-term, said co-author Tim Robinson, a scientist with the
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).
But the systematic use of low doses on livestock is creating
"perfect conditions to grow resistant bacteria", he told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation.
Bacteria like E. coli and salmonella are already becoming resistant
to antibiotics, Robinson said, increasing fears that these diseases
will endanger humans.
Passed from animals to people through food contamination, direct
contact or the broader environment, antibiotic resistant bacteria
will make it harder for doctors to treat basic infections or other
ailments, he said.
The study by experts from Princeton, ILRI and the National
Institutes of Health is the first to measure global antibiotic
consumption by livestock.
Asia is the main region of concern as this is where demand for
livestock products is growing dramatically while regulations
governing antibiotic use in animals are either non-existent or not
publicly available, scientists say.
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China's livestock industry alone could soon be consuming nearly one
third of the world's antibiotics.
The five countries with the largest projected increases in
antibiotics consumption are Myanmar (205 percent), Nigeria (163
percent), Peru (160 percent) and Vietnam (157 percent).
Increasing food production for the estimated 805 million people who
go to bed hungry every night will require a new approach that is
less reliant on intensive, antiobiotic-fueled breeding, Robinson
said.
"Poor livestock producers aren't responsible for this problem, it's
the big firms rushing to meet demand in the growing cities," he
added.
But the poor will be worst affected if resistant bacteria transfer
to humans more often, he said, because they will be the least able
to afford the bigger and more frequent doses of drugs required to
fight infections.
(Reporting By Chris Arsenault, Editing by Emma Batha)
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