Future of Anti-Microbial Use in Livestock

Alltech Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Karl Dawson shares where the livestock industry is headed when it comes to the use of antibiotics in livestock or … antimicrobials as he terms them.
Dawson: “So there message there is we will have to change our plans. There are alternatives though, these maybe other supplements such things as direct feed microbials, or enzymes or plant extracts can be used in that. But they are going to have to be used strategically.”
Most all stakeholder involved in the livestock antimicrobial use debate recognize that this is a very complex issue. There is no one simple answer.
Dawson: “The antibiotic resist bacteria that are out there are there. They have been selected for and we will not eliminate those by simply stopping use today. We’ve looked at data in the past where we looked at animals that didn’t receive antibiotics. These bacteria don’t disappear — they are still there. So in the long-term we have to start thinking about strategies that not only limit the development of these but actually depress antibiotic resistance bacteria and select against them. We would like to eliminate those. So the next strategies that come are going to have to look at methods for making antibiotics more effective and preventing the selection but also decreasing the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria: and that is the big challenge for the next decade.”