Academic advocates user fees for agricultural antibiotics

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

University of Calgary economics professor Aidan Hollis sees user fees for the non-human use of antibiotics as a way to stop dangerous overuse.

Hollis and co-author Ziana Ahmed argue in a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine that the "promiscuous" use of antibiotics is leading to antimicrobial resistance, which could seriously threaten human health.

Their research shows agriculture accounting for 80 per cent of annual antibiotic use in the United States. Hollis told The Poultry Site that many applications are "low-value" – designed to increase productivity, but resulting in marginal profits. "The real value of antibiotics is saving people from dying," Hollis says. "Everything else is trivial."

Rather than advocating an all-out ban on agricultural antibiotics, which would stress some farmers and drive up food prices, Hollis argues for a user fee that would deter indiscriminate use. BF