A plan by the US Food and Drug Administration to test animals in
slaughterhouses to see if bacteria are developing resistance to the antibiotics
used as growth promoters has been backed by the US Veterinary Medicine Advisory
Many experts worry that giving antibiotics to animals leads to resistance in
pathogens such as Salmonella, making them harder to treat when they
infect humans. The FDA’s proposals came after some food-borne bacteria developed
resistance to a class of drugs called fluoroquinolones just four years after the
FDA approved their use in chickens.