“Antibiotics are medications that we used to actually treat ill animals,” Dr. Bender said. “It also could be used to prevent disease, so when we mix a group of animals together just like we mix children together at a daycare, there’s a chance for disease transmission to occur and sometimes those could be bacterial. And so treatment, prevention and control are really the main ways that we use antibiotics.”

He explained that antibiotics are given to animals by farmers or ranchers under the supervision of a veterinarian.

“Veterinarians are critical in working with the farmer if he needs to make decision about what dose, how frequently it needs to be given and then more importantly, working with a farmer about what we call the withdrawal period; the time from when you stop antibiotics to the time that the animal can actually go into the market system,” Dr. Bender. said.

Mechanisms are in place to test products such as meat and milk to make sure there are no antibiotics in food that is being eaten. Because of concerns about antibiotic resistance, in the United States, it is no longer allowed to use antibiotics for growth promotion.

“When using antibiotics there’s a potential for those organisms to change and adapt. So, we have to think more globally about antibiotic use. Do I really need to use an antibiotic? In  the same way, the veterinarian needs to work very closely with the farmer to say do we really need an antibiotic here? If it’s an animal welfare issue, you know the animal is ill, than antibiotics might be very necessary,” Dr. Bender said.

For those concerned about antibiotic use, Dr. Bender gave this advice. “The food that we have in our grocery stores is good. It is inspected, there are regulations in place to really eliminate the possibility that there were antibiotics in there. Products that you buy at the grocery store, you should feel comfortable in consuming.”

Farmers and veterinarians work together to treat, prevent and control diseases. Farmers work with veterinarians to determine proper dosages and frequency of use, as well as adequate withdrawal periods for antibiotics from the animal’s system prior to going to market. Processes are in place to make sure food is safe and free from antibiotic residue.

Check out our video series on antibiotic resistance:

What Causes Antibiotic Resistance? Part 1

Antibiotic Resistance and Navigating Food Labels Part 3

Antibiotic Resistance and Proper Kitchen Techniques. Part 4

The post Antibiotics and Use in Food Animals. Part 2 appeared first on Best Food Facts.

The discovery and use of antibiotics is one of the greatest human and veterinary medical advances in history. However, there is concern about bacteria that are resistant to one or more of the antibiotics used to treat infections.

To help us better understand antibiotic resistance, food blogger Alice Choi of HipFoodieMom went in search of answers from experts. In the first video, she visited with Dr. Pritish Tosh with the Infectious Diseases Division at the Mayo Clinic. He explained how antibiotics developed.

“Antibiotics are derivatives of natural compounds. They are derivatives of things that other organisms are already secreting and they’ve been doing this in terms of biowarfare between different organisms for millennia,” Dr.Tosh said. “Conversely, the antibiotic resistance that the bacteria have, have also existed in nature for a long time. And so, one antibiotic-resistant organism when it gets into your gut, I can share that piece of resistance with other bacteria there.”

Dr. Tosh also discussed how antibiotic resistance emerged, noting that when penicillin was first discovered, there was great excitement.

“Now we’re at a point where we are seeing bacterial infections that are resistant to all the antibiotics that we have. Now thankfully, these multidrug completely resistant bacterial infections are very rare. But we are seeing more of them and the concern is that the more antibiotics we use the more we’re going to see these highly resistant bacterial infections and it’s only going to grow unless we do something very decisive,” he said.

Resistance has emerged because of a combination of antibiotics used to treat people and used in agriculture, Dr. Tosh said. One thing people can do is to not use antibiotic hand soap.

“There’s a lot of pressure that physicians feel from their patients when they come in with a cold to get a prescription for antibiotics. And one major thing to do is not have that expectation and really trust your physician to have the mindset that if the physician says there’s not a need for antibiotics then it’s probably going to be okay,” he said.

Antibiotic resistance is something that has developed over time and overuse of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine has contributed to it. Patients can help by not expecting an antibiotic for every illness.

Other topics in the video series are:

Antibiotic Use in Food Animals

Navigating Food Labels

Proper Kitchen Techniques

For additional resources available Mayo Clinic visit Antibiotics: Misuse puts you and others at risk and Bacterial vs. viral infections: How do they differ?

_{The image “Antibiotics” by Michael Mortensen is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.}

The post What Causes Antibiotic Resistance? Part 1 appeared first on Best Food Facts.