Tijdschr Diergeneesk
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Tijdschr Diergeneesk · Sep 2001
Review[Human health aspects of antibiotic use in food animals: a review].
Antibiotic use not only selects for resistance in pathogenic bacteria, but also in the commensal flora of exposed individuals. Veterinary surgeons regularly prescribe antibiotics for food animals to treat bacterial infections just as doctors do for human patients. In addition, however, animal feeds contain added antibiotics not for therapy but for economic reasons: to enhance the growth rate of these animals. ⋯ As a result of this high exposure to antibiotics, the prevalence of resistant bacteria in the faecal flora of these animals is high. These resistant bacteria can be directly and indirectly, via foods of animal origin, transferred to humans and either colonize the human intestinal tract or exchange their resistance genes with commensal bacteria of humans. As the intestinal flora functions as a reservoir of resistance genes for pathogenic bacteria and because many bacterial species of the intestinal flora are potential pathogens, the efficacy of antibiotic therapy in human medicine may be jeopardized.