Food Safety Magazine, February/March 2012

community, which is heralding more veterinary oversightin the treatment of food animals.Antibiotic resistance emerges through evolutionarypressure. Genetic mutations are expected as bacteriaconstantly evolve to inhabit their surroundingenvironments. Reservoirs for many foodborne bacteriaare often the gastrointestinal systems of animals.How and what we treat animals with, be it for growthpromotion, disease treatment, disease prevention ordisease control, can help tip the selection pressuresand render chosen antibiotics useless in animal and,ultimately, human medicine.The emergence of antibiotic-resistant foodbornepathogens is inherently linked to how antibiotics havebeen used in food animal production. Every time anantibiotic is used, its efficacy diminishes. Once bacteriadevelop resistance to a given antibiotic, they oftenlack susceptibility to other antibiotics that share asimilar mode of action or coexist on the same bacterialplasmid. Creating policies, both in human medicineand animal husbandry, which will minimize the overuseand misuse of antibiotics is essential.F E B R U A R Y n M A R C H 2 0 1 2 37