Antibiotics and Food Animals: By the Numbers

Superbugs Unplugged

On this episode, co-hosts Lance B. Price from the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center and Matt Wellington from US PIRG dig into an annual report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that summarizes sales of antibiotics used in U.S. food animal production. The co-hosts explain both the significance and limitations of the report, which showed a nearly 10% increase in antibiotics sold for food animals from 2017 to 2018. Listeners will learn which animals species are "hogging" most of the antibiotics and how the U.S. compares with some European countries.