Livestock Feed: Antibiotics on your plate

In livestock production, antibiotics are given to animals for a number of reasons—therapeutic treatment, disease prophylaxis and growth pro­motion. The administration of antibiotics to control or kill bacteria also leads to the emergence of antibiotic-resistance bacteria, which can spread from one organism to another. So the question arises: Does the use of antibiotics in animals pose a threat to human health? In particular, the worry is that the antibiotic-resistant bacteria may even spread from animals and/or the environment (groundwater/surface water/soil) to human beings.