Article posted Thursday, June 19, 2014 10:31am

How many tons of antibiotics are consumed in the U.S. every day? Here are your choices:

20 tons?

30 tons?

50 tons?

Did you guess 50 tons? Actually, every day 51 tons of antibiotics are consumed, with about 80 percent going into livestock production. This may be one of the reasons Salmonella, Staphlococcus and other bacteria are growing resistant to antibiotics used to treat people. In one year, more than 36 million pounds of antibiotics are used to try to keep cattle, pigs, chickens and other livestock healthy enough to market. Meanwhile, human health may be compromised. (sciencenews.org, March 8, 2014)