TORONTO, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Canada should restrict the use of antibiotics on farm animals to counter the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the so-called superbugs, an expert panel urged the federal government Friday.

A key recommendation would require farmers to have a prescription for antibiotics they use on animals. At present, antibiotics are available over the counter, and even over the Internet, said panel member Donald Low, chief microbiologist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital and a world expert on antibiotic resistance.

"In this era of emerging anti-microbial resistance, people realize there's a human health issue and there's also one in agriculture," Low told United Press International.

Two years ago, Health Canada asked the 19-member Advisory Committee on Animal Uses of Antimicrobials and Impact on Resistance and Human Health, with representatives from the medical, veterinary and farm sectors, to study the issue.

It is difficult to get solid numbers because drugs for farm use are mostly uncontrolled but Low said between 50 percent and 80 percent of all antibiotics are used in animals, often in small doses that promote the growth of resistance.

The expert panel also recommended Canada regulate the import of antibiotics for agriculture and set up a monitoring system so officials would know the extent and purpose of drug use on Canadian farms.

Antibiotic resistance in farm animals "is a huge issue," said Dr. David Wallinga, of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a Minneapolis-based non-profit organization specializing in healthy rural communities.

Wallinga told UPI there's an emerging scientific consensus that antibiotic resistance in animals can be transferred to people in several ways. One of the simplest, he said, is by eating food that contains resistant bacteria that cause disease in humans.

"I can't overstate enough the degree to which antibiotic resistance is a public health crisis," he said.

He added to a medical doctor, requiring prescriptions for antibiotics "seems like a no-brainer." But in the United States, he said, "you can go into a feed store and buy (antibiotics) by the pound."

Bills that would address the farm antibiotic issue have been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives but have not yet been debated, said physician Tamar ', of the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest.

She told UPI it was unlikely a requirement for prescriptions will be introduced in the United States because veterinarians think it would be too cumbersome a procedure.

Low said the Canadian solution may stop short of requiring a prescription every time a drug is used, and instead may allow farmers to get refills on a drug so long as they are using it for the same purpose.

Most of the antibiotics used in farm animals are intended to promote growth, rather than treat or prevent disease, Low said, and are administered at low doses in feed. But such low doses create ideal conditions for resistant bacteria to emerge.

He added most scientists agree the recent emergence of one strain of human superbug -- vancomycin-resistant enterococcus -- came about because of the use of an animal antibiotic, avoparcin, to promote growth.

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