WASHINGTON (October 10, 1999) - The over-prescription and misuse of antibiotics is creating an alarming spread of drug-resistant bacteria, according to medical experts. Once considered miracle drugs, antibiotics are losing their ability to fight disease as resistant strains of bacteria emerge. In agriculture, antibiotics are favored because they make hens, pigs and cattle fatter. However, strains of bacteria resistant to current treatments can develop in animals living in crowded conditions.

Abigail Slayers, professor of microbiology, at University of Illinois, pointed to evidence that resistant bacteria can be transferred from animals to humans. "There is evidence that resistance genes in bacteria from both cows and humans have the same gene sequence, suggesting they can exchange these genes," she said. "Resistant bacteria are now entering our food supply and might donate their resistant genes to human bacteria," she warned.