US meat processor Cargill Inc says it's stopped using an antibiotic which prevents disease in its turkeys over concerns about its impact on human medicine.
The processor has become the latest food maker to stop using the drug, gentamicin.
The company says it hasn't used the drug to prevent disease in turkeys that supply its two biggest brands, Honeysuckle White and Shady Brook Farms, since August 1.
Gentamicin was the only antibiotic Cargill used to prevent disease in turkeys, and by eliminating it from the brands, 50 million birds will be affected.
The company did not remove the drug from its smaller turkey brands because they are produced to meet customers' specifications, a spokesman said.
A number of food companies and restaurants have stopped using or are looking to curtail their use of certain antibiotics in livestock due to concerns about rising numbers of life-threatening human infections from antibiotic resistant bacteria dubbed "superbugs."
Yum Brands Inc investors filed a shareholder proposal on Tuesday encouraging the company to quickly phase out harmful antibiotics from its meat supply.
The request came after McDonald's Corp said last week that it had removed antibiotics important to human medicine from its chicken months ahead of schedule.
Veterinary use of antibiotics is legal, but as the number of human infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria increases, consumer advocates and public health experts have campaigned to end their routine use in farm animals.
