Feed Lot Magazine Online, The Real Antibiotics Issue Final Chapter

Over nearly the last year we have been discussing how the livestock industry is being used as a scapegoat with respect to antibiotics. The reality is that there is no evidence that animal antibiotics cause bacteria to develop resistance to human antibiotics. The real problem is overuse of human antibiotics. Each year physicians write more than 50 million unnecessary prescriptions for antibiotics.

The driving force causing physicians to write these unnecessary prescriptions is the predatory behavior of the legal profession. Known as defensive medicine, doctors write unnecessary prescriptions not to protect patients but themselves, and they put all of us at risk in the process. The solution to the antibiotic problem is to reduce the overuse of human antibiotics. We must put the practice of medicine back in the hands of doctors, not lawyers. Although it will not be easy, there is a way to do it.

We Need Your Help! On occasion I have testified as an expert witness and have learned how lawyers manipulate and abuse the civil litigation system. I have therefore prepared a series of editorials written for the general public, focusing on the antibiotics issue and how to limit the abuses of attorneys. These limits will make it easier for physicians to practice responsible medicine. Please write, fax, E-mail, or call for copies to be placed in your hometown newspaper. To be effective, we must get widespread publicity and support.

If we do nothing. Most of us have felt we might lose Aureomycin(1U) , Terramycin(1U), sulphamethazine, and/or Neomycin (1U), all broad spectrum antibiotics used in the feed (since these have long been the targets of attempts to "ban" low-level antibiotics). With what has occurred in Europe, however, there is no telling what we might lose. In Denmark, for example, Avoparcin(1U), an ionophore, has been banned due to a perceived (but unproven) theory that resistance can be passed to Vancomycin(1U) , (a very important human antibiotic). The unthinkable is that we might lose ionophores over here, but that is within the realm of possibilities. Whenever witch hunts are allowed to replace due process, anything can happen.

With respect to losing antibiotics, typically we think in terms of animal health, and clearly such diseases as hoof rot, coccidiosis and ordinary shipping fever would become more difficult to control. But so also could bloat, acidosis and sudden death should iono-phores be taken away. (USA Today ran a major article "exposing" how the feedlot industry routinely feeds low-level antibiotics. What they were referring to was Rumensin(1U).

Veterinarians. In the past veterinarians have always felt their turf would not necessarily be invaded, that more antibiotics would simply be made prescription items. Not necessarily true. It is entirely likely that antibiotics currently used by veterinarians may have their availability removed.

Note: For copies of Dr. Price's editorials for placement in your hometown newspaper, write, fax, E-mail, or call him at: 5803 Leasburg Dr., Las Cruces, NM 88005, ph. 505-525-1370, FAX 505-525-1394, E-mail Nutconsult@Zianet.com, Web site http://www.zianet.com/nutconsult/.