Concern about human resistance has led to a push to limit
antibiotic use in livestock. New FDA guidelines have the
attention of Minnesota farmers. Most of the turkey growers that
Minnesota veterinarian Jill Nezworski works with mix antibiotics
into their birds' feed only to cope with disease -- quelling a
cough outbreak or easing a bout of avian diarrhea. A minority,
however, also use the drugs to boost their birds' growth and
improve the conversion of feed into body mass. Some hog farmers,
cattle ranchers and chicken producers do the same sort of thing.
But decades of concern over the effects of animal antibiotic use
on the health of the humans at the end of the food chain have
boiled to the point where federal regulations are in the works
that could curb their use. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
is on the verge of releasing new guidelines on animal
antibiotics to limit their application to animal health. The
stakes are high in Minnesota, a national leader in turkey and
hog production, and where antib