The British newspaper the Independent says fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics “banned on U.S. chicken farms a decade ago over links to the spread of potentially deadly bacteria in humans, are being used in significantly increased quantities by the British poultry industry.”
Use of the antibiotic increased 59 percent in a 12-month period, according to industry figures obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, “despite evidence that they could be fueling drug resistant forms of dangerous food poisoning illnesses in humans, including campylobacter, salmonella and E. coli.” Use of fluoroquinolones is legal in animal agriculture in Britain. The group Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics said use of the antibiotics should be banned because of the risk of bacterial resistance to the drugs. The British Poultry Council told the Independent that it has encouraged lower use of antibiotics, with a particular focus on those drugs of critical importance for human medicine.