How do chickens become contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
Antibiotics such as penicillin are given to chickens in low doses to prevent or reduce sickness and to speed growth. When chickens actually get sick, they are given a full strength antibiotic for a short time. If a flock of chickens is too big to treat just one bird (which is often the case), veterinarians may treat all the birds in the flock with antibiotics in their drinking water. These antibiotics kill not only the ‘bad’ bacteria in the one sick chicken, but also some of the many other types of bacteria that normally live inside a chicken. Bacteria that survive the drug treatment develop a resistance to that particular drug and may eventually contaminate carcasses during slaughter and processing. What effect does this have on humans? The antibiotics used to treat chickens, and other animals, are often the same ones used to treat humans. Penicillin, erythromycin and tetracycline are just a few drugs that are commonly prescribed for both animals and humans. Humans can come in contact
