Roger Harvey wants to wean pigs off of antibiotics.

The drugs have been widely used to fend off E. coli bacterial infections, which may sicken or kill young pigs. Dr. Harvey, a veterinarian at a US Department of Agriculture research lab in College Station, Texas, has developed a drug-free alternative - a friendly bacteria that he says would essentially "vaccinate" piglets against E. coli. Field trials on thousands of pigs at five farms with E. coli problems have shown the treatment to be effective and cost-saving for farmers. If the government grants approval, as expected, the bacterial treatment could be on the market in two or three years, Harvey says.

Finding alternatives to antibiotics has become more urgent as concerns grow that their use in farm animals builds up resistance in bacteria, ultimately creating new "super bugs" that can defy the antibiotics used to treat humans. For this reason, groups such as the American Medical Association and World Health Organization have opposed the use of antibiotics in healthy livestock for some time.

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a prohibition on antiviral drug use in farm animals, saying that practice could lessen the drugs' effectiveness against avian flu. Medical authorities worry that avian flu, now spreading among birds worldwide, may mutate into a form that will pass between humans.

Though the principle of built-up resistance is the same with both antibiotic and antiviral drugs, the FDA has not demanded less use of antibiotics in livestock.

But the industry has begun to act on its own. Earlier this year, four major chicken producers told USA Today that they had voluntarily reduced their use of antibiotics. One of them, Tyson Foods, announced that in 1997 it had used 853,000 pounds of antibiotics on its chickens. In 2004, it used just 59,000 pounds, a 93 percent reduction.

"I think we're seeing a really strong commitment and some action being taken on the part of the major poultry producers," says John Balbus, director of the health program at Environmental Defense, an environmental advocacy group in Washington D.C. "Does that mean the battle is over? Absolutely not."

The US government doesn't require farmers to report their use of antibiotics, so figures are difficult to confirm independently. Several estimates put the total use at between 20 million and 30 million pounds every year, most of it put into animal feed. About 13 million pounds of those drugs are also used by humans, says David Wallinga, a medical doctor and director of the food and health program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), an advocacy group for ecologically sound agriculture. "The vast majority of antibiotics use in animals is unnecessary," Dr. Wallinga says. For decades, he says, they have been used to promote animal growth and prevent disease outbreaks in addition to treating disease.

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