THE medical advances of the past 50 years could be undermined by the use of antibiotics in farm animal feed. In the light of evidence produced by the Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring Laboratory, the government must act quickly.

Research warns of a grim situation in which the growth of drug-resistant "superbugs" such as E-coli and salmonella can be blamed directly on the use of antibiotics with farm animals.

However, it is encouraging to see that the problem has been brought into the open so that consumers and farmers alike can be made aware of the measures being taken to avoid a situation that could lead to thousands of deaths.

Already people have died because they were suffering from illnesses capable of resisting antibiotics.

The revelations come on the same day that the Ministry of Agriculture is slammed by a Parliamentary watchdog committee for dragging its heels over the BSE disaster.

There must be no repeat performance of tactics which cost the taxpayer £4 billion.

And, to be fair, there are signs that the government is getting its act together over the latest food chain scare.

Critics of intensive farming methods will argue that this is what happens when we mess about with nature.

They have a point, of course.

Antibiotics are fed to animals which are kept in restricted spaces, part of a programme which fattens them quickly and gets meat from farms to shops in the quickest possible time.

But the health of the nation is far more important than profits.

If assembly line farming is threatening medical advances, the government, with the help of its experts in medicine and agriculture, must come up with the answers, even if it means a complete re-think of farming methods.

A few years ago organic farmers were dismissed as weirdos.

Nobody will be laughing at them now.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.