Posted by Sharlee (203.45.206.21) on April 28, 2002 at 04:04:58:
In Reply to: Ya just gotta love 'em posted by Emily (68.13.146.250) on April 28, 2002 at 02:02:00:
: The Onion.
#### I would be surprised if this is the case. In Australia we have strict controls and witholding periods for any antibiotic use and it is essential to our large export trade (including the US hamburger meat)that no atibiotics are present. We have regular random audits on all classes of foods for antibiotics and while I am not saying things are by any means perfect, any result that resembled either partly what is being claimed would be a major calamity. Noone would be praising the situation which is what makes me feel the article is not true (is the Onion sending things up and not meant to be serious?). As for the claim that animals receive 8 times the average human dose, that also does not ring true. We have a national committee called JETACAR which has looked in this and it found that the majority of problems associated with antibiotic resistance was associated with doctors practices and overprescribing for humans. In my experience, antibiotic usage is costly and is generally restricted to cases whereby disease (eg respiratory) has been diagnosed and there is a fear of it spreading. There is some evidence that low levels of antibiotics does increase growth rates but I am not sure how widely this is practised given its cost. It is generally not the group of drugs one commonly associates as being antibiotics. At any result, witholding periods are strictly enforced and monitored. We were audited by the USDA and the European Union last year (the last very rigorously) and they certainly took things very seriously indeed. Sharlee