Sing along with Peter, Paul and Mary:

Where have all the antibiotics gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the antibiotics gone
Long time ago
Where have all the antibiotics gone
To pigs, cows, dogs and chickens
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

The FDA’s summary report on Antimicrobials Sold or Distributed for Use in Food-Producing Animals looking at 2015 sales is just out. And I am depressed.

Domestic sales of medically important antimicrobials increased, again, by 2 percent from 2014 through 2015.

Tetracycline sales rose by 4 percent in 2015 and have grown by 31 percent since 2009.

The Animal Health Institute is quoted in AgriPulse as having said no worries because “tetracyclines don‘t play a big role in human medicine”.

But the science says they do play a big role in bacteria developing resistance to much more important antibiotics used in human medicine, so the fact that they account for 71 percent of U.S. sales for animals of medically important antibiotics does play a significant part in this whole issue of antibiotic resistance and what, if any, effect does feeding massive amounts of antibiotics to animals have to do with the big picture.

In addition, from 2014 through 2015, penicillin sales for use in animals rose 6 percent and macrolides increased by 1 percent.

I could see me not prescribing tetracycline if I went back into the rat race of health care, but penicillin (Augmentin) and macrolides (Z-Pak) remain very important antibiotics in human health.

I am interested in hearing AHI’s response to this rise in use.

I know, I know, the Veterinary Feed Directive is supposed to solve all our problems and stop our worrying, but as long as tetracycline remains dirt cheap, I don’t see too many ag producers venturing too far from what has been their normal practice.

Will they just call growth promotion by a different name? I hope not.

But my real question with these numbers is as follows:.

With Costco, McDonalds, Chik-Fil-A, Panera Bread, Chipotle, Tyson Foods, Perdue Family Farms, Subway, Whole Foods and all the others saying their meat and poultry offerings are from animals raised without antibiotics, why has the FDA report shown an increase in total sales over each of the last three years when all the PR has been about antibiotic-free?

How can it be that meat and poultry sales of animals raised without antibiotics are climbing a pretty steep curve while, at the same time, antibiotic sales are also climbing?

Maybe there is a fox in the hen house, or should I say a communications expert in the CAFO?

I have always wondered how there is enough Black Angus beef to support all the claims that the burgers are just that — 100 percent Black Angus?

And now this conundrum shows up.

Where have all the antibiotics gone?

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