Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 9:57 a.m.
Similar findings were cited this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Lack of effective antibiotics raises the specter of worldwide epidemics of deadly infectious diseases. Unfortunately reports in the past have failed to convince the FDA to ban the practice.
Nearly half of antibiotics produced in the U.S., including the new, more powerful drugs, are used to keep animals alive until slaughter in the filthy, crowded pens of "factory farms."
Antibiotic resistance developed in animal pathogens is eventually transmitted to human pathogens. Offenders thus far have been campylobacter and salmonella, but reports of more deadly drug-resistant pathogens surface often.
Hardly a month goes by without a report of another outbreak of infectious disease associated with consumption of meat or dairy products.
The U.S. Public Health Service estimates that each year millions of Americans are afflicted and up to 9,000 killed by these diseases.
What happened to the good old days, when meat eating was linked only with heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other chronic killer diseases?
In the short run, the FDA must ban the routine, indiscriminate use of powerful antibiotics in animal feed.
In the long run, we should all consider a diet of grains, vegetables, and fresh fruits which contain all the nutrients we require, without the deadly pathogens, carcinogens, cholesterol, and saturated fats.
These foods are touted by every responsible health advocacy group and appear to have been the recommended fare in the Garden of Eden.
DEBBIE DILL
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