``Infectious diseases are the third leading cause of death in the United States, behind heart disease and cancer, and antibiotics are often necessary in treatment of infectious diseases. However, bacteria can develop resistance to an antibiotic upon repeated use so that antibiotics that once were effective to treat infections caused by the bacteria are no longer lethal against the bacteria. Such antibiotic resistance is a serious human health problem and has contributed to the increased cost of treating infectious diseases. Research has linked the use of antibiotics in agriculture to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of disease-causing bacteria. Antibiotics are used in agriculture to treat and prevent diseases in animals and food plants and as feed additives to improve the growth rate of animals.``

``The most common bacteria found in animals and which are known to cause illness in humans are Salmonella, Campylobacter and Escherichia coli. Although the ill effects of these food-borne pathogens are generally mild, each year several thousand persons contract severe illness and die as a result of exposure to such bacteria. In the United States an estimated 800,000 to 4 million cases of Salmonella infection occur each year, requiring 8000 to 18,000 hospitalizations and resulting in 500 deaths. Similarly,E. coli infections cause 50 to 100 deaths each year in the United States. In addition, of the 2 to 4 million people infected each year in the United States with Campylobacter, 1 in 1000 contract Guillan-Barr syndrome, a disease associated with paralysis.``

``The first instance of antibiotic-resistant infection in humans in the United States was caused by fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter and was observed in 1996, shortly after fluoroquinolones were approved for use in poultry (The United States General Accounting Office, Report No.: RCED-99-74).``

``Recently three studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine report that (1) meat sold in grocery stores contains antibiotic resistant Salmonella strains (White et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 345: 1147-1154,2001) and (2) antibiotic resistant strains of Enterococcusfaecium from chicken and pork are directly transferred to humans (McDonald et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 345: 1155-1160, 2001 and Sorensen et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 345: 1161-1166,2001).``

``The European Union`s concern that use of antibiotics in agriculture leads to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can infect man has resulted in a ban on the use of growth- promoting antibiotics for agricultural purposes in Europe. In the United States, the Center for Disease Control and the Department of Health are also in favor of a ban or a decrease in the use of antibiotics in agriculture.``

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