Burger King and Tim Hortons announced their ultimate resolution for 2017- both chains will start serving chicken raised without any treatment of antibiotics.
A major announcement is coming for the customers of Burger King and Tim Hortons this year. The major decision of serving antibiotic-free chicken is a move that has gained praise from Restaurant Brands International as "critically important" to human health and medicine. The changes are expected to be fully implemented in U.S. stores by 2017 and in Canada by 2018.
"We believe that it is important to reduce the use of antibiotics important for human medicine in order to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics in both veterinary and human medicine," confirmed Restaurant Brands, owner of Burger King.
U.S. FDA reports that 70 percent of antibiotics in the U.S. are being fed to farm animals. Recent data reveals that of only 20 percent of human antibiotics are actually being used to treat humans from infection.
Why Are Antibiotics Given To Farm Animals?
Commercial farmers explained that the practice of feeding antibiotics to farm animals promotes growth and gives protection from diseases.
Antibiotic treatment to animals however is linked to the development of "superbugs" or drug-resistant pathogens that significantly threaten global health.
According to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 2 million people in the U.S. are infected with these drug-resistant bacteria every year- 23,000 oft these cases result to death.
In 2013, U.S. FDA issued a guidance pressuring meat companies to stop the use of antibiotics to animals. In recent years, health researchers and consumer safety officers have also issued warnings to the public against the use of antibiotics to livestock.
Some experts advice physicians to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions to patients as a good preventive measure in the process of eliminating antibiotics in human food.
