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A common misconception is that 80% of antibiotics used in cattle (or livestock in general) are used in humans. The fact of the matter is that to generate such a percentage is not that simple as simply getting some simple percent to wave around in everyone's faces.

There are many more livestock in North America (more emphasis placed on the US of A) than humans, and most of these livestock are larger and need a bigger dose of medicine--including antibiotic--than the average human needs. Also, many antibiotics used in human medicine are different than what are used in animals.

See, 13 percent of antibiotics, in the form of ionophores (the most common form, being monensin, is not used in humans) make up the antibiotic total. The rest of the total of what the FDA had provided--as in a little over 13 million antibiotics--are used for sick animals, not on healthy animals just so the farmer can "make a quick buck."

Bottom line is that it is quite impossible to glean an exact percentage of antibiotics used in livestock like cattle, no matter how you try to look at it or work around it.

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11y ago

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