Sub-therapeutic Antibiotics and Impacts on U.S. Hog Farms

William McBride, Nigel Key and Kenneth Mathews

No 103232, 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: Antimicrobial drugs are fed to hogs at sub-therapeutic levels to prevent disease and promote growth. However, there is concern that the presence of antimicrobial drugs in hog feed is a factor promoting the development of antimicrobial drug-resistant bacteria. This study describes the extent to which antibiotics are used in hog production and how this changed between 2004 and 2009. This study also uses a sample-selection model to examine the impact that use has on the productivity of U.S. hog operations. Using hog producer data from 2004, the analysis did not find a relationship between productivity and sub-therapeutic antibiotics fed during finishing, but productivity was significantly improved when fed to nursery pigs. These results are being evaluated using similar data from 2009.

Keywords: Farm Management; Production Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32
Date: 2011-07-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-eff
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea11:103232

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.103232

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