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The Effects on Human Health of Subtherapeutic Use of Antimicrobials in Animal Feeds (1980) / Chapter Skim
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5. Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 52-55

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From page 52...
... An ideal study of the effects on human health resulting from the subtherapeutic use of antimicrobials in animal feeds would be able to relate, without conjecture or speculation, antimicrobials in feed to changes in morbidity or mortality or to treatment c~mplications caused by resistance to antimicrobials in humans who had been exposed to animals or meat products during processing, handling, or, especially, consumption. Changes in morbidity and mortality could be used to quantitate the risk of the potential hazards posed by increased prevalence of resistant bacteria, by the development of plasmids conferring multiple resistance, or by the evolution of especially efficient transfer mechanisms within the reservoir of bacteria in animals.
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From page 53...
... The committee gave considerable thought to the necessary elements of the ideal study to measure accurately the effects on human health resulting from the subtherapeutic use of antimicrobials in animal feeds and how such a study should be designed. It concluded that a comprehensive, all-enc~mpassing study could not be realized or even approximated because of insurmountable technical difficulties.
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From page 54...
... Plasmids in isolates from animals and humans must be characterized to assess-the possibility that subtherapeutic levels of antimicrobials in animals produce qualitative changes in resistance to antimicrobials in the enteric flora of animals, changes that might subsequently affect human health. RECOMMENDATIONS The committee RECOMMENDS that future epidemiological studies, whether the ones suggested here or others, be carefully planned to fill gaps in our present knowledge and, especially, to avoid the errors of ambiguous design and small sample size that have caused such difficulties in interpretating the data.
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From page 55...
... 55 The committee RECOMMENDS further research on ~ the mechanism of action of subtherapeutic levels of antimicrobials in feed (BARR, Appendix K) including characterization of the composition and interactions of the gastrointestinal flora (Savage, Appendix D)
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Key Terms

  • animal feeds
  • resistant bacteria
  • affect human
  • transfer mechanisms
  • health resulting

  • ideal study
  • meat products
  • efficient transfer
  • isolated fragments
  • preventive techniques

  • data exist
  • future epidemiological
  • proposed hazards
  • federal republic
  • data gathered

  • qualitative changes
  • herman illness
  • meat production
  • various components
  • conferring multiple

  • information relating
  • considerable thought
  • issue moot
  • recommends increased
  • ambiguous design

  • postulated hazards
  • continued monitoring
  • restrictive regulations
  • thereby rendering
  • plasmids conferring


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