OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Animal Antibiotics

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 15, 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Agriculture and Food Animals and Wildlife

Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Madam Speaker, there are those in Congress who want to restrict antibiotic use in animal agriculture. They overlook the good these drugs do to improve both animal and human health. If animal antibiotics are restricted to only treatment of already sick animals, animal disease and death can be expected to increase, while decreasing the abundance and safety of our food supply.

When Denmark banned antibiotics for growth promotion in pigs, animal deaths and disease rose, requiring the use of more drugs for therapeutic purposes. Meanwhile, there was no improvement in human health.

Potential increases in the occurrence of food-borne illnesses in the absence of animal antibiotics are another concern. An Ohio State University study found that pigs raised outdoors without antibiotics had more exposure to food-borne pathogens than those raised in confinement.

Use of animal antibiotics should be determined by a scientific, risk-benefit analysis, not an arbitrary ban devised by politicians.


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