IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 2
The Swedish thus regard improved animal welfare, particularly five to six
week weaning and the addition of straw to small pigs' environments, as
central to Swedish pig farmers' successful adjustment to antibiotic
restrictions. 133 No housing and management adjustments were necessary
for keeping sows and boars without antibiotic feed additives. The majority
of Swedish farmers have, since the mid-1980s, kept their sows loosehoused
in groups on deep straw, maintaining a low stress, more natural
environment, conducive to good health and fitness.
Discussing ways to minimize antibiotic resistance, the 1998 NAS/NRC
study acknowledged that "researchers in some European countries would
suggest that a shift to less intensive rearing and increased attention to
hygiene can resolve many of the situations where the disease and stress
load on animals might warrant the use of antibiotics and augment the risk
to human health." 134
The NAS/NRC study cited two sources:
1. Witte 135 called for the gradual phasing out of antibiotics as animal
growth promoters, stating "[s]imilar benefits can be generated by
improving other aspects of animal care, such as hygiene."
2. The World Health Organization 136 recommended improving production
environments by raising the level of hygiene and switching to more
extensive and enriched housing systems that could reduce stress by means
of better animal welfare.
However, the NAS/NRC group, noting the difference in magnitude and
scale of animal agriculture in the United States compared to Europe, as
well as the economic importance of subtherapeutic antibiotic use to
current industry practices, went on to state: 137
a goal of producing food animals in the United States
devoid of antibiotic use would require a total change in the
philosophy and economics of how animals are raised... and
a major overhaul of the interactions and interdependencies
inherent between the animal producers and crop producers.
What these "interdependencies" might be or why an overhaul might be
needed is not explained, nor is it self-evident. What might the outcome be
if, in the United States, "antibiotics were eliminated as feed additives"?
According to the 1998 NAS/NRC report: 138
[I]t is questionable whether production in confinement
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