Drug Resistant Bacteria Sources Include Factory Farms
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Please watch this CBS video:
Watch CBS News Videos Online
From the video:
- “overuse of antibiotics in animals is leading to the creation of new strains of drug resistant bacteria that could make humans sick.”
- “drug resistant infections have skyrocketed over the past few decades killing an estimated 70 thousand Americans last year alone …It’s an emerging health crisis.”
- “my theory is one day we are going to have an organism that is resistant to everything”
- “some [bacteria] can be passed on through undercooked meat”
- “evidence of MRSA has been found in the nation’s meat supply”
- “it could be in the water runoff from the farm… it could be in the air”
- “antibiotic use on farms is [...] widespread”
- “antibiotics keep the cost of meat lower and the profits higher”
- “no one is monitoring it”
The quote about 70 million Americans dying last year alone isn’t right – it’s actually 70,000.
There are about 2 million deaths per year in the US(see the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/deaths.htm). The fact that almost as many people are thought to have died of drug-resistant bacterial infections as of diabetes is pretty scary in and of itself!
Lisa, whoops. I’ll fix it.