Antibiotic Use in British Pigs

[Pat Gardiner]

Pat's Note: The Soil Association have made some changes to their site
and produced some figures on antibiotic use in pigs that I have not
noticed published before.

As far as I know, the British Government has never published usage
except lumped together with poultry.

So, I guess all the Soil Association can get is estimates - and since
they have a bigger research department than I have <chuckle>, it is
the best we are likely to get.

http://www.soilassociation.org/notinmybanger/factoryfarmedpigsthefacts

�Disease, injury and premature death
Our powerful scientific evidence shows that the incidence of a number
of serious diseases, including salmonella, could increase when large
numbers of pigs are kept together indoors.

Large scale intensive pig factories give reason to be concerned about
the build up of antibiotic resistance genes in pigs and pork, local
wildlife, soil and pig workers, and potentially everyone living
locally to them, due to the frequent use of antibiotics in pig feed to
control a wide range of conditions on intensive farms. Approximately
half of all antibiotics in the UK are prescribed by vets (of which
around 45% are used on farms and approximately 5% are given to pets).
Approximately 60% of all antibiotics used on farms are given to pigs.
All but one of these are the same as, or closely related to, medically
important antibiotics used in human medicine�

--
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release and independently audit the results of testing British pigs
for MRSA, C.Diff and Hepatitis E now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/