Banning antibiotics from animal feed clearly helps human beings. That's the conclusion of a study published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents in Chemotherapy.
In 1995, the Danish government banned an antibiotic called avaroparcin in animal feed. In 1998, it banned a second antibiotic called virginiamycin. In 1999, the Danes voluntarily removed all antibiotics from animal feed.
These three steps worked. Researchers looked at intestinal bacteria in chicken and pigs. The number of resistant bacteria, which can cause food poisoning, dropped between 1995 and 2000 from 73 to 6 percent for one antibiotic and 66 to 34 percent for another.
And so, reducing antibiotics in animal feed could dramatically reduce the number of cases of food poisoning in human beings.
The same steps the Danish government took over there could work over here.
