COLUMBUS - Ohio is the 25th ranked state in the estimated use of antibiotics as feed additives for chicken, hogs and beef cattle with about 340,000 pounds a year, according to a report released today by Environmental Defense.
In Ohio, Fulton county ranks in the top ten counties in the state in antibiotic feed use with about 19,000 pounds used in 2002; Putnam County ranks 11th with more than 16,000 pounds used in 2002; Williams County ranks 43rd with more than 3,000 pounds used in 2002; Defiance County ranks 47th with a reported 2,827 pounds used in 2002; and Henry County ranks 51st with just over 2,400 pounds used in 2002.
Almost all of the 26.5 million pounds of antibiotics estimated to be used in the United States as feed additives each year occurs in 23 states. The top ranked states, North Carolina and Iowa, are each estimated to use three million pounds of antibiotics as feed additives annually, the same quantity of antibiotics estimated to be used each year in human medicine nationwide.
"Studies suggest that people living in areas with intensive antibiotic use are at greater risk of contracting antibiotic-resistant infections," said Ellen Silbergeld, professor of environmental health services at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The report urges swift enactment of bipartisan federal legislation to phase out use of medically important antibiotics as feed additives, The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, sponsored by U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown &-OH).
The bipartisan senate version of this bill authorizes funds to farmers to help defray costs of phasing out non-therapeutic use of medically important antibiotics, and provides for research and demonstration projects to assist farmers in this transition. The report, Resistant Bugs and Antibiotic Drugs: Local Estimates of Antibiotics in Agricultural Feed and Animal Waste, provides state and county level estimates of the quantities of antibiotics used as feed additives for chicken, hogs and cattle, along with estimates for antibiotics in animal waste.
The report is available at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/antibiotic.estimates. "The public has a right to know where antibiotics are being used for nonessential purposes, notably as antibiotic feed additives," said Karen Florini, co-author of the report. "Unfortunately no governmental data are available on quantities of antibiotics used in livestock feed either locally or nationally."
Overuse of antibiotics in agriculture is widely regarded as contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten human health. Antibiotics are added to feed not to treat sick animals, but rather on the grounds that they may promote slightly faster growth or prevent disease that could result from the crowded, stressful conditions.The Crescent-News, Defiance, OH
