At Hamburger Central, Antibiotics for Cattle That Aren’t Sick

  • 6 years ago
At Hamburger Central, Antibiotics for Cattle That Aren’t Sick
“It’s a big ecological shift, except it’s happening within the human body.”
The Feedlot Veterinarian
Director of veterinary services, Cactus Feeders
“There’s a pen up here I’ve been wanting to look at.”
Dr. Carter King oversees 10 feedlots for Cactus and some two million head of cattle a year.
And there are costs.”
Regular use of tylosin on farms, he added, “is a genuinely bad idea
because of cross-resistance, involving important drugs used in human medicine.” Tylosin is part of a widely used class of antibiotics used by humans, including Z-Pak.
“Everything else loses money.”
Antibiotic-free beef also costs consumers more, though groups like Consumers Union feel it “is worth the extra money.”
For Mr. Callicrate, keeping his cattle off the feedlot changed his perspective
“But today we just don’t have it.”
Owner of Callicrate Cattle and Ranch Foods Direct
A blunt-spoken former bull rider, Mike Callicrate raises cattle in Kansas and Colorado.

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