Cited by 2,241Antibiotic Use and ResistancePharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental ImpactsAntibiotic Resistance in Bacteria

Food Animals and Antimicrobials: Impacts on Human Health

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Marshall, Bonnie M., Levy, Stuart B.·2011·Clinical Microbiology Reviews

Abstract

SUMMARY: Antimicrobials are valuable therapeutics whose efficacy is seriously compromised by the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. The provision of antibiotics to food animals encompasses a wide variety of nontherapeutic purposes that include growth promotion. The concern over resistance emergence and spread to people by nontherapeutic use of antimicrobials has led to conflicted practices and opinions. Considerable evidence supported the removal of nontherapeutic antimicrobials (NTAs) in Europe, based on the “precautionary principle.” Still, concrete scientific evidence of the favorable versus unfavorable consequences of NTAs is not clear to all stakeholders. Substantial data show elevated antibiotic resistance in bacteria associated with animals fed NTAs and their food products. This resistance spreads to other animals and humans—directly by contact and indirectly via the food chain, water, air, and manured and sludge-fertilized soils. Modern genetic techniques are making advances in deciphering the ecological impact of NTAs, but modeling efforts are thwarted by deficits in key knowledge of microbial and antibiotic loads at each stage of the transmission chain. Still, the substantial and expanding volume of evidence reporting animal-to-human spread of resistant bacteria, including that arising from use of NTAs, supports eliminating NTA use in order to reduce the growing environmental load of resistance genes.

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Crossref · 10.1128/cmr.00002-11

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158 of 158 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Food animals and workers on farms using AGPs harbor more antibiotic-resistant bacteria compared to those from farms not using AGPs.

    “Food animals and workers on farms using AGPs harbor more antibiotic-resistant bacteria compared to those from farms not using AGPs [92].”
  • Consequently, it has since been widely documented that antimicrobial use in food animals correlates not only with the emergence of bacterial multidrug resistance but also with the spread of infectious diseases that are recalcitrant to efficacious chemotherapy in humans.

    “Consequently, it has since been widely documented that antimicrobial use in food animals correlates not only with the emergence of bacterial multidrug resistance but also with the spread of infectious diseases that are recalcitrant to efficacious chemotherapy in humans [92,114,123,124].”
  • Policy practices implemented in Europe in which antimicrobial non-therapeutic uses are completely banned (e.g., avoparcin and virginiamycin) in agriculture settings have resulted in reductions in both the prevalence of multidrug-resistant pathogens and in the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for clinically relevant antimicrobials, such as vancomycin.

    “Policy practices implemented in Europe in which antimicrobial non-therapeutic uses are completely banned (e.g., avoparcin and virginiamycin) in agriculture settings have resulted in reductions in both the prevalence of multidrug-resistant pathogens and in the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for clinically relevant antimicrobials, such as vancomycin [92,124].”

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Authors
Marshall, B. M., & Levy, S. B.
Affiliations
Tufts University (US)
Corresponding author
Levy, Stuart B.
Venue
Clinical Microbiology Reviews
Published
2011-10
Volume
24
Issue
4
Pages
718-733
ISSN
  • 0893-8512 (ISSN-L)
  • 1098-6618
OpenAlex
W2101571099
Cited by
2,241
References
158
Citations by year
2026: 109 · 2025: 118 · 2024: 170 · 2023: 208 · 2022: 219 · 2021: 236 · 2020: 241 · 2019: 197 · 2018: 155 · 2017: 162 · 2016: 133 · 2015: 121 · 2014: 82 · 2013: 67 · 2012: 21
FWCI
50.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Clinical Microbiology Reviews (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology › Antibiotic Use and Resistance
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria
Keywords
growth promotion, antimicrobial resistance, food-producing animals, zoonotic transmission, drug-resistant bacteria, food chain, precautionary principle, antibiotic use regulation, human health
MeSH terms
Animals, Animal Husbandry, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Drug Residues, Drug Resistance, Microbial, Europe, Humans, Meat, Risk Factors, Food Safety

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