Wal-Mart, the nation's largest food retailer, is urging its thousands of US suppliers to curb the use of antibiotics in farm animals and improve treatment of them.
That means asking meat producers, eggs suppliers and others to use antibiotics only for disease prevention or treatment, not to fatten their animals, a common industry practice.
The guidelines also aim to get suppliers to stop using sow gestation crates and other housing that does not give animals enough space.
The push is part of an industry trend responding to shoppers who want to know more about where their food comes from and are choosing foods they see as more healthy or natural. It comes after activists have reported animal abuse at farms supplying Wal-Mart and other major companies.
