Everyone knows that there are ways around the laws and regulations set in place by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA is supposed to regulate what food, drugs, and substances are safe for human consumption, and also to foresee any possible complications or downsides that a new drug may pose.
Antibiotics are one of the most widely-used drugs to treat a variety of ailments. While they are effective at treating a number of illnesses in humans and animals alike, they have been too widely and frequently distributed. This wide distribution is permitted since antibiotics are FDA approved, therefore there are no limitations to their supply and sale.
There are many reasons why the quick sale of antibiotics should be diminished, in both animals and humans. Take livestock, for example. I completely understand administering antibiotics to sick animals that are in need of medication. However, this is not the only reason antibiotics are given to domestic creatures. Some farms are administering antibiotics in order to increase and speed growth, as well as to decrease the amount of food needed by the animal in order for it to be healthy. This unnecessary consumption of antibiotics is strictly to save and make more money. The problem with this increased administration of antibiotics for non-medical purposes is that animal cells are growing increasingly immune to antibiotics. This immunity could prove detrimental to livestock as we know it, because some common day ailments can only be treated using antibiotics, meaning that if animals become immune to antibiotics, they could potentially die from these ailments. Another problem is that this immunity could potentially be passed on to humans, either by eating meat from an immune animal, or simply through contact with an immune animal. If humans ever became immune to antibiotics, the entire healthcare system would have to be revolutionized and new medications would have to be invented in order to fight diseases.
In the end, the usage of antibiotics in livestock needs to be more regulated. The FDA needs to take control of the illegal sale of these drugs, as well as pass new laws regarding when it is acceptable to administer antibiotics and when it is not. If something is not done to prevent antibiotic immunity, the healthcare system as we know it will change for the worse, and we may experience a dark age of disease.
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