Antibiotic-resistant bacteria travel from animals to humans - Know how

New Delhi: Ever since its discovery, antibiotics have been used in animal feed for years. Antibiotics, used to control infectious diseases in humans and animals, are being used in livestock and poultry feed not as an anti-microbial agent, but as a growth -promoting agent.

The rapid rise of the use of antibiotics in animals has raised serious health concerns for humans. This is a huge concern because after animals have been fed antibiotics over a period of time, they retain the strains of bacteria which are resistant to antibiotics.

Antibiotics, when given to animals, may kill many bacteria, but resistant germs can survive and multiply. This may lead to infections that are resistant to drugs in humans.

According to CDC, people may be exposed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria from animals through the following methods:

• From poor handling or eating raw or undercooked food from animals or produce contaminated with resistant bacteria.
• From touching or caring for animals.
• From contact with animal stool (either directly or when it gets into water for drinking, swimming or growing plants).

Since some of these antibiotic-resistant infections cause severe illness, patients may have higher medical expenses, take longer to recover, or may even die from the infection.

Triggering serious health concerns for chicken-eaters, a new study found high levels of antibiotic-resistant pathogens in chickens raised for both meat and eggs on Indian farms.

Antibiotic resistance has become one of the world’s most pressing public health problems. Illnesses that were once easily treatable with antibiotics are becoming more difficult to cure and more expensive to treat as a result of drastic rise in resistance.