Hurd Health: Animal Health and Food Safety

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“Meet the Meat People” – Dr. Hurd in Huffington Post Blog

Recently, I had the opportunity to discuss antimicrobial resistance with a blogger at HuffPostGreen. Here is one of the key points from the article:

“Keiffer: The confined living conditions of industrially produced animals seem to demand the use of some prophylactic to retard the spread of disease.
Hurd: The above is an incorrect misunderstanding of modern production. Antibiotics cost the producer extra money to use. They will take every other means needed before applying antimicrobials. Animals will always be raised in groups, indoors or outdoors. They get sick in both situations. Organic farms run the risk of harming animal welfare, if they delay treatment. Treating an entire barn at the early signs of disease will save many lives. However, animals treated with antibiotics are no longer “organic”, so the producer will suffer a financial penalty for using them.”