Obama Administration might restrict use of antibiotics in healthy livestock
Finally, let’s hope-
“The Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated that as much as 70 percent of antibiotics used in the United States is given to healthy chickens, pigs and cattle to encourage their growth or to prevent illnesses.”
The medical community has been urging this for decades. Administration Seeks to Restrict Antibiotics in Livestock. By Gardiner Harris. New York Times.

Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
4 Responses to Obama Administration might restrict use of antibiotics in healthy livestock
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Join 970 other subscribersRecent Posts
- We Lost Jim Bailey–Wild Bison Advocate. May 31, 2023
- Wildfire And California Home Insurance Challenges May 27, 2023
- Grizzlies Get A Win On Upper Green May 26, 2023
- Senator Daines Ill-advised Forest Management Advocacy May 25, 2023
- Save Our Sequoias Act–A Stealth Attack On NEPA, ESA and Our Sequoia Groves May 21, 2023
Recent Comments
- Kevin Bixby on We Lost Jim Bailey–Wild Bison Advocate.
- Lyn McCormick on We Lost Jim Bailey–Wild Bison Advocate.
- Jannett Heckert on We Lost Jim Bailey–Wild Bison Advocate.
- Rick Meis on We Lost Jim Bailey–Wild Bison Advocate.
- Ida Lupine on Save Our Sequoias Act–A Stealth Attack On NEPA, ESA and Our Sequoia Groves
- Mary on Save Our Sequoias Act–A Stealth Attack On NEPA, ESA and Our Sequoia Groves
- Rambling Dave on Wildfire And California Home Insurance Challenges
- Ida Lupine on Wildfire And California Home Insurance Challenges
- Mary on Wildfire And California Home Insurance Challenges
- Jeff Hoffman on Wildfire And California Home Insurance Challenges
- Jeff Hoffman on Senator Daines Ill-advised Forest Management Advocacy
- laurie on Grizzlies Get A Win On Upper Green
- Ida Lupine on Grizzlies Get A Win On Upper Green
- Jeff Hoffman on Grizzlies Get A Win On Upper Green
- Ida Lupine on Grizzlies Get A Win On Upper Green
This is a breath of fresh air. Before we all die of virulent strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
But you can bet the livestock industry and Big Pharma will go ballistic.
The best way to get some good things through would be for the Obama Admin. to announce a while series of common sense changes like this. That way, industry would have so many targets … some might get through.
funny how you have to convince a doctor you are in dire need of an antibiotic to get a strong prescription but a rancher can buy the stuff at CAL Ranch from a fridge without so much as even a after thought….
Nathan: Yes, and you spend a hundred dollars or more on the Doctor visit to be able to get the prescription for the drug. Meanwhile, as you said, rancher can waltz into the feed store … it will be interesting to see what happens with this – since Ag. somehow always whines and screams and skates free of any regulations. Perhaps the swine flu and microorganisms mutating at the speed of light in the squalor of modern ag. has struck enough fear in the CDC-types that some changes will be pushed through.
I just looked up Cephalexin monohydrate capsules (a.k.a. Keflex), a popular broad spectrum antibiotic. It is available for $23.99 for 100, 250 mg capsules (for treating your fish). This is a human sized dose — 250 mg.
Price Grabber tells me the lowest price for 100, 500 mg “human capsules” (exactly same drug) is about $120. Divide that two and you have $60 for cephalexin for you and $24 for the same amount for your fish.
I speculate a similar disparity for livestock. I hope someone has the information.