The use of antibiotics in agriculture threatens to create dangerous pathogens

If a large number of antibiotics used in agriculture enter the soil and water, new pathogens can emerge that can later mutate and become dangerous to humans.

To reduce the risk, it is necessary to significantly reduce or completely abandon the use of antibiotics in livestock and crop production, Oleg Kobyakov, DIRECTOR of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) office for communication with the Russian Federation, said on Wednesday at the international symposium "One Health", held on the basis of the Don State Technical university.

“90% of all microorganisms on the planet live in the soil, of which more than half have not yet been studied. The introduction of antibiotics into the natural environment, soil and water threatens us with the creation of new reservoirs of pathogens, their mutation and return through animals from intermediate carriers to humans,” said Kobyakov.

He clarified that in order to reduce the risks of the emergence of a large number of pathogens, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization calls for the complete elimination of the use of antibiotics in animal production, except when such drugs are used to treat animals. Kobyakov noted that there is also concern that the use of antibiotics in agriculture has gone beyond animal husbandry and is used in crop production.