A report from the think tank Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy warns there are more and more cases of antibiotic-resistant infections around the world, “and the agricultural use of antibiotics plays a large part,” says Modern Farmer. It quotes the report as saying, “Evidence … indicates an overall decline in the total stock of antibiotic effectiveness: Resistance to all first-line and last-resort antibiotics is rising.”
The think tank’s director, Ramanan Laxminarayan, says, “The biggest surprise was the quantity of use of antibiotics in the animal sector – about 64,000 tons, which is expected to go to about 105,000 tons by 2030.” Antibiotics in livestock account for two-thirds of antimicrobial use worldwide, says Laxminarayan, who says antibiotic use is rising due to increased demand for meat and a shift toward more intensive livestock farming.
“One piece of good news from the report is the decrease in cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Europe, the U.S., and Canada over the past eight years,” said Modern Farmer, but MRSA cases are on the rise in other regions.
National Geographic said “the CDDEP report proposes that the resistance and misuse problems it enumerates can be addressed with just six actions, covering the behavior of medicine, agriculture, everyday citizens – and, crucially, political systems. It calls for the creation of national antibiotic-resistance strategies in every country, contending that every country can begin to work on the problem no matter the state of its economy.”
The United States is taking a number of steps to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics. Drugmakers are midway through a voluntary phase-out of the use of medically important antibiotics to promote weight gain in cattle, hogs and poultry. Doctors are being asked to prescribe antibiotics more judiciously and researchers are working on new antibiotics as well as practices that reduce illness and the need for antibiotics.