Health & Fitness

Colloidal Silver: Animal Antibiotics

Most animal antibiotics used on the farm are not given to treat sick animals. Farmers choose to feed livestock that contains a low-level of antibiotics in order to attack bacteria that might require an animals immune system to kill off. By feeding them animal antibiotics in this manner, it allows animals to grow more quickly and more efficiently in the eyes of the farmer.

Animal Antibiotics Effects on Human Health
In human medicine, the resistance of antibiotics has reached a crisis stage. In the past 20 years, the speed with which bacteria are becoming resistant to multiple drugs has overtaken the speed of new drug development. As a result, both doctors and patients are faced with the prospect of not being able to treat infections.

Although a great deal of the problem stems from overuse and improper use of antibiotics in human medicine, the widespread use of animal antibiotics in agriculture has also contributed to the crisis. The agricultural uses of animal antibiotics allow for a variety of environmental exposures, which ultimately select for resistant microbes and bacteria.

When animals are given antibiotics in their feed, it can cause microbes in the animals to become resistant to the drugs. As a result, people can also become infected with the resistant bacteria when they eat or handled meat that is contaminated with the bacteria. Some believe that animal antibiotics are undermining antibiotics for people and this may cause a problem in the future as bacteria become more and more resistant to multiple drugs.