Thoughts of the medical microbiologist on the use of antimicrobial drugs in animals.
The restriction in feed-antibiotics as carried out in our country so far did not lead to the expected decrease of R-factors in the faecal flora of the animals staying in stable. Possible explanations on this subject are given in this report. The question arises whether the best solution to the problem would not be a complex separation of antibiotics used in human medicine from those used in veterinary medicine, as already discussed in the Swann report. A further spreading of plasmids and transposons should be stopped because their influence on the microcosmos is not presumable for the future, especially because R-factors get more and more genes for rising the virulence of their host bacteria.
D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002417:Cattle / Q000382:microbiology*; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005503:Food Additives; D011815:R Factors; D013557:Switzerland
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D005503:Food Additives