07/10/06 Animal Health Antibiotics

The overuse of antibiotics in treating routine childhood illnesses is a concern voiced by many pediatricians. They find that some parents literally beg for antibiotic prescriptions, when their children are ill. Yet when antibiotics are used to treat farm animals consumers are on the other side of the coin. In fact to be a certified organic dairy, antibiotics are banned. This can often make it difficult for a veterinarian to treat ill animals and one voiced his frustration to me over loosing organic dairy cattle to diseases that respond to antibiotics, resulting in needless suffering and cruel deaths. Despite any concrete evidence that animal antibiotics are harmful to humans Human activists preach antibiotic fear. As a result of an aggressive campaign by the notably liberal group, Union of Concerned Scientists( who list their among their "critical" causes "cleaner school busses for kids" ) the state of Maine became the first state to issue a meat preference policy stating the state now prefers to buy products from antibiotic free animals.