Various Americans, most of them living on the outskirts and barns and farms, are at an increasing risk of being harmed by animals who have managed to develop drug resistant infections because they have been on antibiotics. While it is true that these help the animals grow faster, feeding livestock antibiotics has its vast share of disadvantages as well, leading experts to call for a restriction on the practice.

As per researchers, the overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals has led to a wave of infections that are substantially drug resistant and these have ended up killing over 65,000 people across the US last year alone, which is more than prostate and drug cancer combined.

"This is a living breathing problem, it's the big bad wolf and it's knocking at our door. It's here. It's arrived", said Dr. Vance Fowler, an infectious disease specialist at Duke University.

Because of rising uses of antibiotics, according to experts, deadly diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and staph are coming back in newer and more dangerous forms.

In response to these problems, experts are now increasing the pressure on authorities to altogether ban the use of antibiotics in animals, or at least their overuse. The WHO had earlier this year shared that the growing antibiotic resistance is one of the "leading threats to human health", with the White House acknowledging last month that the issue is "urgent".