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Since 2011, the government has banned the addition of antibiotics to livestock feed to prevent misuse of antibiotics when raising cattle or pigs.

Some pig farms still show no decline in antibiotic resistance.



Reporter Park Chan-beom covered what happened and whether it would not affect people.



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One of the common diseases that occurs on pig farms is diarrhea and swelling of the body.



It is mainly caused by pathogenic E. coli, which interferes with the growth of pigs and, in extreme cases, leads to death.



A domestic research team followed up and investigated the status of antibiotic resistance in the pathogenic E. coli strains isolated from reared pigs.



As a result, the rate of resistance to antibiotics such as streptomycin, ampicillin, and colistin increased in Chungcheong-do, where the largest pig farm in Korea was concentrated.



In particular, the rate of resistance to various antibiotics also surged from 56.9% to 88.5%, more than 30%p before and after 2011 when antibiotic feed was banned.



The pathogenic E. coli itself has the ability to defend against various antibiotics.



The researchers analyzed that the antibiotic resistance rate against bacteria did not decrease even after the ban on'antibiotic feed' because the use of antibiotics by pig farms was still maintained.



[Wan-Gyu Lee/Professor, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Chungbuk National University: Because the farming environment is such a poor environment that the pig farms are reared very densely, I think the disease is in such a disadvantage that it is difficult to breed without antibiotics.



The sales of pig antibiotics by year have also increased, and about 20% of livestock antibiotics can be purchased and used by farmers without a veterinarian's prescription.



[Animal drug company official: If you don't use antibiotics, you can't raise pigs now.

We also have to take antibiotics and antipyretics together to take cold medicine.] As the



abuse of livestock antibiotics can eventually affect humans, it is pointed out that it is necessary to investigate the use of antibiotics by livestock farms and prepare measures.



(Video coverage: Seo Jin-ho, Video editing: Hwang Ji-young, CG: Jang Seong-beom, Lee Yu-jin)