Antibiotic misuse Antibiotic misuse Antibiotic misuse, sometimes called antibiotic abuse or antibiotic overuse, refers to the misuse or overuse of antibiotics, with potentially serious effects on health. It is a contributing factor to the development of antibiotic resistance, including the creation of multidrug-resistant bacteria, informally called "super bugs": relatively harmless bacteria (such as staphylococcus, enterococcus and acinetobacter) can develop resistance to multiple antibiotics and cause life-threatening infections. Antibiotics have been around since 1928 when penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming. In the 1980s, antibiotics that were determined medically important for treatment of animals could be approved under veterinary oversight. In 1996, the
Antibiotic use in livestock for not collecting enough information and data on antibiotic use in factory farms. From this, the GAO concluded that the FDA does not have enough information to create effective policy changes regarding antibiotic use. In response, the FDA insisted that more research was being conducted and voluntary efforts within the industry would solve the problem of antibiotic resistance. Few policies exist that limit antibiotic use on factory farms, and some proposed legislation in the US has failed to be adopted. In 2007, two federal bills (S. 549 and H.R. 962) aimed to phase out nontherapeutic antibiotics in U.S. food animal