More than 40 doctors, farmers, ranchers, and veterinarians have joined US PIRG Education Fund’s new Coalition to Preserve Antibiotics. The multi-stakeholder group will work at all levels of government, industry, and academia to reduce antibiotic use in meat production.
Nearly two thirds of medically important antibiotics sold in the United States go to industrial farms. Often, meat producers use these life-saving medicines routinely to compensate for unsanitary, over-crowded, and stressful living conditions. That overuse breeds antibiotic resistant bacteria that can spread off of farms and sicken people with dangerous, and potentially life-threatening illnesses.
The coalition will soon deliver a letter to McDonald’s urging the fast food giant to follow through with its commitment to reduce antibiotic use in its global beef supply chain.
Antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" kill at least 35,000 Americans every year -- and one of the primary ways these dangerous bacteria develop is through the overuse of our medically important antibiotics in animal agriculture.
