Friday, June 24, 2011

Tell Congress: No antibiotics in our food

Dear Friend,

An outbreak in Germany this month of an antibiotic resistant E. coli strain killed 35 people and infected thousands - and serves as a somber reminder of the necessity of effective antibiotics.

Yet antibiotics continue to decline in effectiveness -- and overuse of antibiotics in the livestock industry is a major reason. Alarmingly, up to 70% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used on industrial farms in healthy food animals.

This massive overprescription is breeding new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria like E. coli and MRSA, a type of staph infection that now kills more people in the U.S. every year than AIDS.

The trend is frightening. Congress is now considering The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act to phase out the rampant overuse by the livestock industry of medically important antibiotics in healthy animals.

I just sent a message to my Senators and Representative in Congress. Please join me and urge them to pass this vital legislation:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/pass_pamta/?r_by=23090-3052123-3wB_H9x&rc=paste2

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