Livestock-related Antibiotic Resistance Now Found To Nearly Triple

(Newswire.net — June 20, 2022) Orlando, FL — Antibiotic resistance is considered to be one of the biggest threats to human health. Experts continue to warn against this global health threat and study into how it is increasingly affecting people today. 

According to a recent report, the increasing appetite for animal protein in developing countries has led to the rise of antibiotic intake for livestock. Further, it has nearly tripled the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in disease-causing bacteria transmitted easily from animals to humans.

The findings of this research were published in the Science journal.

In this study, the investigators from ETH Zurich, the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), and the Free University of Brussels gathered almost 1,000 publications and unpublished veterinary reports from around the globe.

It was for the purpose of creating a map of antimicrobial resistance in low- to middle-income countries. It is further worth noting that they focused on the bacteria Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus, all of which lead serious disease in animals and humans.

Experts reveal that between 2000 and 2018, there was an increase in the proportion of antibiotics exhibiting rates of resistance above 50 percent in developing countries. The increase in chickens ranged from 0.15 to 0.41 and in pigs, 0.13 to 0.34. 

This means that antibiotics that could be useful for treatment failed more than half the time in 40 percent of chickens and one-third of pigs raised for human intake. The investigators have also found that antibiotic resistance in livestock was more common in countries like India, China, Kenya, and Brazil. 

“This paper is the first to track antibiotic resistance in animals globally and it finds that resistance has gone up dramatically during the past 18 years,” said co-author Ramanan Laxminarayan.

Laxminarayan is a senior research scholar in PEI. The research was supported by the PEI Health Grand Challenge program and included co-author Julia Song, a graduate of Princeton’s Class of 2018 and a past PEI research assistant.

“We certainly do want higher-protein diets for many people, but if this comes at the cost of failing antibiotics, then we need to evaluate our priorities,” Laxminarayan added.

In lessening the odds of antibiotic resistance, it is wise to eliminate the need to use this medication. This means warding off urinary tract infections (UTIs), which are usually treated through the use of antibiotics. 

Plant-based ingredients like D-mannose may be particularly beneficial. It is used widely today as a preventive remedy and treatment for the infection. 

There are formulas like Divine Bounty D-mannose that may be helpful in delivering the UTI-fighting benefits of this remedy (http://amazon.com/D-Mannose-600mg-Cranberry-Dandelion-Extract/dp/B01LX5KGF0).