Consumer advocates push animal feed issue

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The consumer advocate group Keep Antibiotics Working is pushing for a U.S. ban on the use of antibiotics in farm animal feed.

Introduced by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, and Olympia Snow, R-Maine, the "Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act" would phase out from livestock feed in two years antibiotics deemed "important in human medicine."

The group cited studies showing that 70 percent of all U.S. antibiotics are administered in low doses to promote the growth of pigs, sheep, chicken and cattle, boosting their speed of food-to-muscle conversion by 5 percent, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.

This use of antibiotics also runs the risk of breeding resistant bacteria, threatening the future of these drugs for use in animals and humans.