In a new report, a major international agricultural research group has called for a global ban on the use of antibiotics in livestock.
The International Dairy Council (IDA), a non-profit organisation based in New York City, is calling for a moratorium on the “use of antibiotics” in animal feed and in dairy products, including dairy products.
The report follows a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO), which recommended a moratorium for use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), a class of drugs commonly used to treat pneumonia and other infections in humans.
According to the WHO, the use in animals of NSAIDs in humans can lead to higher rates of infections.
This is because the drugs are used to fight infection, but in the case of livestock, the drug’s use can also be detrimental to the animal.
The IADC report argues that the use and misuse of antibiotics is a major threat to the health of animals.
The group says there is no clear evidence that the drugs reduce bacterial resistance and that they are associated with antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria in animal farms.
The US National Research Council (NRC), a government agency, has also issued a warning that antibiotics have the potential to be a major problem for the health and well-being of livestock.
Its conclusion was published in the September 2013 edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology.
“The current use of a range of antibiotics to treat livestock has the potential of producing more antibiotic-resistance strains of the bacteria that are responsible for many human diseases,” the NRC wrote.
“We need to work together to identify and prevent the use, misuse, and accidental exposure to antibiotics, which have been implicated in the emergence of antibiotic- resistant bacterial strains of pathogenic bacteria in the food supply.”
“This is particularly relevant as we begin to phase out antibiotic use for livestock in the near future,” said Mark Sperling, senior scientist with IADI.
“There’s a real risk that the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance is occurring at the same time as antibiotic use in humans, which means the development of a new generation of resistant bacteria that could spread globally.”
The IADS report, published in September, comes on the heels of a separate report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) that calls for a ban on antibiotics.
The WEF found that the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria in animals has been linked to the use or misuse of the drugs used to kill them.
“Antibiotics are often misused in farming, where they can result in severe and potentially fatal infections,” said Michael Osterholm, senior adviser to the World Resources Institute, an environmental group based in Washington DC.
“It is also likely that antibiotics are being misused to treat illnesses in people, as a result of the high demand for antibiotics in the developing world, and the need to make use of them as a preventative measure for human diseases.”
This could lead to the spread of resistance and the spread in livestock, which are used as food animals in many countries.
It is estimated that approximately 2.5 million animals are slaughtered each year in the United States alone.
The use of pharmaceuticals in animals was banned in the US in 1978, following a report by a US federal agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
However, it was re-introduced in 2004 after an unprecedented outbreak of drug-resistant bacteria was detected in some US meat production facilities.
The government is now considering a ban for livestock as well, according to the IADS.
“With the recent emergence of resistance in bacteria in some dairy farms, we believe that a global moratorium is the only way to prevent the emergence in the future of antibiotic free meat and dairy,” Spering said.
“To be clear, we don’t think a global restriction on the usage of antibiotics would solve all of the problem associated with the overuse of these drugs in livestock.”
