The Ontario Medical Association wants the federal and provincial governments to crack down on antibiotic use in farming.
The organization is issuing a call to arms on the problem of antibiotic resistance, warning the world is in danger of losing these drugs because of misuse.
A policy paper drafted by the OMA says Ontario should ban the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in food animal production.
Farmers currently feed antibiotics to healthy animals both to prevent them from becoming ill and to accelerate growth.
Many more tonnes of the drugs are used in agricultural operations than in human medicine and experts say the practice is fuelling development of resistance.
OMA President Dr. Doug Weir says Canada has been slower off the mark to act to protect antibiotics than countries in Europe and the United States.
Weir says Canadians do not appear to understand that if antibiotic use isn't curbed, the world faces a future in which some infections will be incurable.
