User:A Aidara-Kane

Surveillance results : Antimicrobial Resistance in US livestock

Drug resistant bacteria, in the 1980s, were known to grow uncontrollably in the livestock industry in the USA due to poorly regulated use of antibiotics as growth promoters. Results of this policy included up to a 60.6% prevalence of resistance in bacteria surveyed in cows in Texas, Arkansas, and New Mexico. With the introduction of the Food and Drug Administration's National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, which extensively surveys food borne strains of resistant bacteria, there has been considerable effect upon prevalence of antimicrobial resistance, as is clear from the following statistics:


 * a 49.4% decrease in prevalence of resistance below the Mason-Dixon line over the past 15 years
 * a 32% decrease in prevalence of resistance in E. Coli in Texas, Arkansas, and New Mexico
 * a 29.8% reduction in resistance to penicillin amongst Aureus bacteria

The FDA has also taken initiative to reduce use of antibiotics as growth promoters in the livestock industry, as evident from their final decision to no longer allow distribution or use of the antimicrobial drug enrofloxacin for the purpose of treating bacterial infections in poultry.