The National Pork Producers Association and the Meat
Institute in the United States both called it too heavy-handed and broad.
They say the judicious farm use of antibiotics ought to be
allowed, including disease prevention.
But the World Health Organization said the overuse and
misuse of antibiotics in animals and humans is contributing to the rising
threat of antibiotic resistance.
WHO noted that some types of bacteria that cause serious
infections in humans already have developed resistance to most or all of the
available treatments and there are “very few promising options in the research
pipeline.”
The new recommendations aim to preserve the effectiveness of
antibiotics that are important for human medicine, pointing out in the
statement that about 80 percent of the total consumption of medically important
antibiotics is in the animal sector.
WHO said most of the antibiotics are used solely to promote
growth in healthy animals.
