1. Antibiotic use in food-animal production is a controversial issue in the US, where foodanimal producers and drug companies often argue that the risk to human health is minimized when animal-only antibiotics, such as Ceftiofur and Tylosin, are used on the farm. Explain why this approach is not necessarily protective against the emergence of bacteria resistant to antibiotics used in human medicine.
2. How might low-level antibiotic use be more effective at selecting for antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens as compared to therapeutic dosing?
3. For decades we have been treating chlamydia infections in people with tetracycline, yet there has been no emergence of a tetracycline-resistant chlamydia trachomatis. Why might this be so?
4. Insufficient hygiene is a key factor in the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens in settings where antibiotics are routinely used. What are some other factors that are important to the ecology and spread of antibacterial-resistant pathogens? What work-place hygiene policies should be in place to minimize the emergence and spread of these resistant pathogens?
5. In addition to the food-animal production and the clinical settings, what other settings are becoming susceptible to the emergence of antibacterial resistant pathogens due to the ecological factors discussed above?
6. Should antibiotic use in the animal-food industry continue as it does now? Think about this from several different perspectives - what do you think as a consumer? As a producer? As the FDA?