March 2, 2007

US pig producers against antibiotic ban
 

US pig producers fear the proposed bill that should ban antibiotics will bring them more rules to follow.

Though this is the fourth time that the plan is being discussed, the way it is adopted now is even bigger as the Democrats (who have the majority in the Congress) are more pro biological farming than their opposites; the Republicans.

Although being adopted by Senator Edward Kennedy among others, the bill only wants to phase out seven antibiotics, all very close to antibiotics that are being used in human medicine.

Seventy percent of the antibiotics used in poultry, pigs and beef cattle are used as growth promoter instead of medicine according to data from the Union of Concerned Scientist; the reason why authors of the bill want to reduce the unnecessary large amounts of antibiotics. The proposal was also largely applauded by medical professionals.

Although doctors seem to like the idea, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is strongly against the new bill. The measures are too extreme and limit the management practices of the pig farmers, according to David Warner, spokes person of the NPPC.

According to Warner, antibiotics are not used on a large scale by pig producers in feeds as they are expensive. 

He agrees that antibiotics are used as a preventive measure, "but that is normally only for a short period and on a very low scale", Warner commented. He also addressed that the amount of antibiotics use for sick animals is more than the use of antibiotics in the feed.

After the antibiotic ban in Denmark, the curative use of antibiotics increased from 57,300 kilo to 112,650 kilo.