IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 2
exists for work in intensive confinement buildings or around manure pits,
although officials have known of the dangers for years. 29 There is a
confined space procedure that could be used for manure pits, but even this
standard is not enforceable on farms employing fewer than 10 people. In
response to a 1990 NIOSH-Centers for Disease Control request for
assistance to prevent loss of life in manure pits, extension services in
several states published fact sheets on manure pit safety. 30 Complying
with the recommendations, though, is voluntary. 31
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Liquid manure handling originally was introduced to reduce the labor
costs associated with cleaning out hog buildings and, it was thought, for
simple and safe storage. This promise has been fulfilled at the expense of
individual farmers and workers who have become ill or died and their
families who have watched loved ones suffer. As will be seen in later
chapters, it also has been fulfilled at the expense of the environment, farm
animals, and neighbors.
The Threat of Antibiotic Resistance
Domestic food-producing animals outnumber humans in the United States
by more than five to one. 32 The majority of these animals are routinely
given subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics to make them grow faster and
convert feed to flesh more efficiently. Low-level antibiotic feed additives
are also used to control disease in animals that are raised under less than
optimal environmental and management conditions.
Medical scientists have estimated that about 40% to 45% of antibiotics
produced in the United States is used in animals. 33 Eighty percent of this
is used subtherapeutically in feed or water of farm animals to make them
grow faster and control disease. Only 20% of antibiotic feed additives is
used to treat actual illnesses.
What Is Subtherapeutic Use?
According to the National Academy of Sciences, National Research
Council (NAS/NRC): 34
Subtherapeutic use [is] defined in the United States as the
use of an antibiotic as a feed additive at less than 200
grams per ton of feed [that] delivers antibiotics that have
therapeutic effects but at dosages below those required to
treat established infections (emphasis added).
For nearly 50 years, medical scientists have expressed concern that this
subtherapeutic usage of antibiotics in farm animals, at levels too low to