Save antibiotics for medicine – not as growth promoters

UPDATE: This post has been updated to reflect a valid comment that I messed up in the original post. Specific use of antibiotics as feed additives has been forbidden for years in the EU. The petition was about cutting the prophylactic use of antibiotics in animals, but that was very unclear from the original post. I thank my readers for pointing this unclarity out.

I’m going to do something unusual and ask you to sign a petition targeted at European Union ministers to support new EU laws to drastically cut the prophylactic use of antibiotics in agriculture as growth promoters. The problem is that if ministers don’t feel the public pressure to act, the laws may be delayed or not be implemented. Examples from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands show that it is possible to produce meat with little or no antibiotics, but since bacteria can travel across borders (1), we need to bring the rest of the world onboard, and the EU is good first step. Therefore I ask you to sign the Avaaz petition here.

1. Bengtsson-Palme J, Angelin M, Huss M, Kjellqvist S, Kristiansson E, Palmgren H, Larsson DGJ, Johansson A: The human gut microbiome as a transporter of antibiotic resistance genes between continents. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 59, 10, 6551-6560 (2015). doi: 10.1128/AAC.00933-15 [Paper link]