An ounce of precaution

OXFORD - The European Council of Farm ministers last week adopted a regulation banning the use of four antibiotics in animal feed. The ban is part of the European Commission's safety-first approach, which embraces the so-called precautionary principle prompted by the mad cow disease controversy.

Although manufacturers Alpharma, Elanco, Pfizer, and Rhone-Poulenc argued there was no scientific evidence to show the use of the antibiotics in animal feed can harm human health, 12 of the 15 ministers supported the ban because of fears that residues in meat could lead to people building up resistance to antibiotics used to treat infectious diseases in humans...