Oklahoma Ranchers: No Proof That Antibiotics In Livestock Harm People

By Ashli Sims, The News On 6

UNDATED --Could the medicine used to keep livestock healthy be breeding bigger, more resistant diseases in people?

That's the focus of a two-day investigation by the CBS Evening News. They interviewed some farmers and ranchers who'd come down with surprisingly difficult-to-treat infections - ones normal antibiotics wouldn't cure.

Some health officials say the practice of feeding antibiotics to healthy animals to prevent them from getting diseases and to promote growth is to blame. But some Green Country farmers and ranchers are firing back.

They say antibiotics for animals are vital to their industry and that there is no proof that those antibiotics are harmful to people.

The Flying G Ranch in Lotsee, Oklahoma has been in Mike Spradling's wife's family for generations.

"The bull is the most important animal in the herd," said Mike Spradling.

And he knows a thing or two about quality, because Flying G specializes in breeding the kind of cows that make the best meat.

He and other ranchers are butting heads with some scientists who claim a common practice among livestock producers could be making humans sicker, saying it's been blown out of proportion.

Some claim that farmers and ranchers are giving healthy animals low doses of antibiotics to prevent disease and promote growth.

"Any time a bacteria gets exposed to antibiotics, they actually learn how to resist it," said Shelley Hearne, Ph.D. with Charitable Trusts. "It's almost like a computer virus. It spreads incredibly fast."

And she says that practice is actually creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could affect people.

After decades in the cattle business, Mike Spradling says they just haven't corralled enough evidence to prove that antibiotics in livestock is harmful to people."

"Science hasn't shown that eating meat treated with an antibiotic is affecting the human body," Spradling, a member of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, said.

"We want to be certain that scientific fact is what we base our judgments and our practices on."

Spradling says he only feeds his cows antibiotics, when they're sick.

But other producers who have larger herds packed into smaller spaces do give antibiotics to healthy animals to keep them healthy.

The threat of animal disease breakout, especially in large populations, is more real than for you having negative (effects) from eating animals that have been treated with antibiotics," said Mike Spradling, rancher.

Denmark tried to decrease the use of antibiotics for livestock. But the American Veterinary Medical Association reports that the voluntary ban saw a rise in hog death and disease, without any significant impact on people's health.