Turns out they're not actually a good idea!

Story posted today:

Study: Antibiotic use in poultry hurts bottom line
By Alicia Karapetian on 1/4/2007 for Meatingplace.com
A new study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University contends that using antibiotics in poultry for growth-promoting purposes actually reduces the net value of each broiler carcass.

According to the study's results, growth-promoting antibiotics decrease the value of each carcass by almost one cent.

The research, which appears in this month's issue of the journal Public Health Reports, claims to be the first economic analysis of the practice in poultry production. The Johns Hopkins researchers used data previously published by Perdue Farms, which looked at 7 million broilers produced by the No. 4 processor.

However, a National Chicken Council spokesman told Meatingplace that the study's results lacked significance because industry use of growth-promoting antibiotics has declined in recent years, and the primary use of antibiotics is for animal health.

Jay Graham, one of the authors of the study, told Meatingplace that his research showed that the companies that do not use growth-promoting antibiotics only represent 38 percent of American poultry production. Graham also highlighted international implications of the study. "This [study] is important because poultry production is growing rapidly [overseas], mostly in developing countries," he said. "There is a belief that using [growth-promoting antibiotics] in feed is necessary from an economic perspective."

Organizations such as Keeping Antibiotics Working oppose the use of antibiotics in animal feed due to fears of potential human resistance to drugs deriving from the same substances. NCC maintains there are no proven cases of human health problems resulting from antibiotic use in the U.S. poultry industry.

Graham, however, contends that antibiotic use in animal feed does affect drug resistance levels in humans. "There are studies that indicate some human drug resistant infections most likely originate from agricultural use of antibiotics," he said.

Yes, one of the best uses of epidemiology -- figuring out that something we don't want to happen isn't a good idea economically. Listen, people: use economics to back up your moral views. Otherwise, people just won't listen.

Sad, but true.