The CMAJ editorial by Barbara Sibbald was interesting and highlighted the threat of antibiotic use in animals leading to antibiotic resistance in humans.1 However, despite the ban on antibiotic use for growth promotion in Sweden for many years, and more recently in Denmark and the European Union in general, no evidence is presented that these bans are having any influence on the amount of animal-derived antibiotic resistance in humans. The author of the editorial1 presents no hard evidence in support of the thesis that widespread antibiotic bans in animals have any widespread beneficial effects for human health.
I have followed this debate for the last 40 years; the agriculture industry appears to me to be more of a scapegoat for poor medical practices than poor agricultural practices. The value of this debate would improve if it were to move beyond speculative assumptions and toward an effort to quantify the benefits of more restrictive policies on antibiotic use in animals.