McDonald's is telling its direct suppliers -- those that control all stages of animal production -- to phase out such antibiotics by the end of 2004. Direct suppliers provide most of McDonald's poultry and 20 percent of its meat.

This is definitely the best news I've seen come out of the fast food industry, ever. Premium Salads are a joke, since most of them have more calories and fat than a Big Mac.

For those of you that haven't ever read up on this before, cattle, poultry and pig farmers were looking for a better way to provide growth energy (aka calories) to their livestock, because it would take several years for a calf to get big enough to send to the slaughterhouse. Through research and experimentation, it was discovered that corn was an excellent source of energy, however, the animals couldn't digest it properly. Actually, it would make them sick, so to counteract that effect, livestock are regularly fed antibiotics.

One of the theories regarding antibiotic resistant viruses is based on the fact that the food we consume has already been given antibiotics. It is possible that the virii out there have already mutated to survive the antibiotics given to the livestock.