by Playfuls Staff |
7th March 2007
A U.S. study suggests restricting the use of antibiotics at poultry farms does little to cut rates of antibiotic resistance [more] bacteria.
University of Georgia researchers discovered chickens raised at antibiotic-free farms and even those raised under laboratory conditions still have high levels of bacteria that are resistant to common antibiotics and have the potential to threaten human health.
Professor Margie Lee and colleagues in the university's college of veterinary medicine said the study's findings suggest poultry arrive at the farms carrying resistant bacteria, possibly acquired as they developed in their eggs.
"The resistances don't necessarily come from antibiotic use in the birds that we eat," Lee said, "so banning antibiotic use on the farm isn't going to help. You have to put in some work before that."
The study, funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, appears in the March issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
© 2007 UPI
