Prevention Matters

The Obama administration wants to ban many routine uses of antibiotics in farm animals in hopes of reducing the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans. Specifically, it wants to ban feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens, pigs and cattle to encourage rapid growth, as well as the use of antibiotics by farmers in animals without the supervision of a veterinarian.

Both practices lead to the development of bacteria that are immune to many treatments. The legislation is supported by the American Medical Association, among other groups, but opposed by farm organizations like the National Pork Producers Council.