Abstract
Dear Editor:
Edrington et al. (2010) highlight an important but often overlooked source of unnecessary use of antimicrobials in agriculture: their employment as part of the ethanol fermentation process to reduce bacterial contamination.
As the authors note, ethanol producers use antibiotics of human importance such as penicillin G, virginiamycin, tetracycline, and streptomycin to control bacterial growth and increase yield. The fate of these antibiotics, however, as the authors acknowledge, is unclear.
In 2009, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy reported nearly 45% of the U.S. ethanol industry uses alternatives to antibiotics for controlling bacterial growth (Olmstead, 2009). These treatments—for example, the addition of a hops-derived enzyme and treatment with stabilized chlorine dioxide—have proven to be cost-effective for producers, and as effective as antibiotics at controlling bacteria.
Antibiotic overuse in agriculture contributes to resistance, as indeed does antibiotic use generally. This resistance affects both livestock and humans (Van den Bogaard et al., 2000; Smolinski et al., 2003). Resistance to antibiotics constitutes a public health crisis, costing society billions of dollars annually.
With viable alternatives readily available to ethanol producers, there is no public health rationale for continuing to use antibiotics.