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A MedPage Today opinion by Hana Kahleova argues that antibiotic use in food animals is an upstream contributor to resistant infections and should be part of clinicians’ stewardship efforts. The article points to China’s 2017 restriction on colistin as evidence that policy changes can reduce resistance, while calling for less routine preventive use in healthy animals.
A MedPage Today opinion published October 4 argues that antibiotic use in food animals is an important upstream source of drug resistance that clinicians should address alongside prescribing in hospitals and clinics. Author Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, calls for limits on routine preventive use in healthy animals, while stressing that sick livestock still need treatment.
Kahleova cites an estimate that about 70% of antibiotics considered important to human medicine in the United States are sold for use in food animals. She argues that much of this use is not to treat illness, but to prevent disease and support production in crowded livestock settings. The figure and account appear in the opinion article; the supplied material does not provide a separate data source or methodology for the estimate.
The article describes how resistant bacteria and resistance genes can move beyond farms through meat, water, dust, farm workers and manure, eventually appearing in human infections. It points to colistin resistance as a case in which a transferable gene, mcr-1, spread internationally after colistin was used as a growth promoter on Chinese pig farms.
According to Kahleova, China’s 2017 ban on colistin as a feed additive was followed by measurable declines in colistin resistance in animals and people. She presents this as evidence that food-animal policy can affect resistance, not as proof that agricultural use explains every resistant infection or that clinical stewardship is unimportant.
Resistance Starts Beyond the Clinic
The argument matters because clinical antibiotic stewardship can reduce unnecessary prescriptions, but it does not control antibiotic use across food production. If resistant organisms or resistance genes move from farms into the wider environment and human populations, treating each infection alone may leave an upstream source untouched.
Kahleova says clinicians have some influence through conversations about food choices and institutional purchasing, including hospital food-service contracts. Those steps are presented as additions to—not replacements for—farm-level policy. The central implication is that responsibility for preserving antibiotic effectiveness may extend beyond prescribers to agriculture, health institutions and policymakers.
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The Colistin Policy Example
The opinion situates its argument against concern about the future scale of antimicrobial resistance. It cites projections that livestock antibiotic use could rise by nearly one-third by 2040, and estimates that drug-resistant infections kill about 35,000 people in the United States each year. It also references a Lancet forecast of roughly 39 million deaths globally from resistant infections between now and 2050. These are estimates and projections quoted by the author, rather than new findings announced in the opinion.
The World Health Organization has urged farmers to stop routine preventive antibiotic use in animals that are not sick, Kahleova writes. That position is distinct from eliminating veterinary antibiotics: animals with genuine illnesses still require treatment. The article argues that targeted limits on routine use should accompany efforts to improve prescribing in human medicine.
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How Much Resistance Comes From Farms?
The opinion does not quantify what share of resistant infections in people can be attributed to food-animal antibiotic use, or distinguish that contribution from other sources such as antibiotic use in human healthcare. The supplied source also does not provide the underlying studies and methods for its headline statistics, so those figures should be read as estimates cited by the author.
The colistin example offers a specific policy case, but it does not establish that similar restrictions would produce the same results for every drug, animal industry or setting. The article also does not set out how proposed changes to diet, hospital purchasing or farm practices would be measured, or what effects they would have on food costs and livestock health.
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Policy and Purchasing Choices
Kahleova urges clinicians to support restrictions on routine preventive antibiotic use in healthy livestock through professional societies, and to raise food choices and institutional purchasing as part of stewardship discussions. The opinion does not announce a new regulation, policy decision or formal clinical guideline. Any changes to farm rules or hospital contracts would depend on decisions by the relevant authorities and institutions.
For readers, the immediate development is a call for a broader approach, not a newly enacted program. The evidence and projections cited in the piece, as well as any future evaluations of restrictions or purchasing changes, will determine how strongly these proposals can be linked to changes in human resistance.
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Key Questions
What is the news development?
A MedPage Today opinion published October 4, 2026, argues that antibiotic use in food animals should be part of efforts to address drug resistance, alongside prescribing practices in human medicine.
Does the article call for stopping all antibiotics in livestock?
No. Kahleova distinguishes routine preventive use in healthy animals from treatment for sick animals, which she says remains necessary.
What example does the author cite?
The article points to colistin use on Chinese pig farms and the spread of the mcr-1 resistance gene. It says resistance declined in animals and people after China banned colistin as a feed additive in 2017.
What can clinicians do, according to the opinion?
Kahleova proposes discussing food choices with patients, reviewing institutional food purchasing, and supporting targeted farm-level policies through professional organizations. She presents these actions as complements to clinical stewardship, not substitutes for it.
Source: rss
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