"The World Health Organization, worried about an increasing epidemic of drug-resistant infections, has thrown its considerable weight behind the campaign to cut the use of antibiotics in pigs, chickens and cattle that are raised for their meat. The WHO is calling on governments to follow the example of Denmark and the Netherlands, which have banned the use of these drugs to make animals grow faster, or simply to protect healthy animals from getting sick.

The "over-use and misuse of antimicrobials" has occurred both in human medicine and on farms, says Marc Sprenger, a scientist at WHO. But in sheer quantity, the amount of antibiotics used on farms far exceeds what's used to treat people in many countries, including in the U.S.

"It's very important that we reduce use in human medicine and in animal production," says Kazuaki Miyagishima, director of the Department of Food Safety at the WHO."

Dan Charles reports for NPR November 7, 2017. [2]