by Larry Powell writes from SHOAL LAKE, MANITOBA. The World Health Organization is ramping up its warnings about the health risks of giving antibiotics to animals raised in intensive livestock operations (ILOs) everywhere. In an announcement in Geneva this week , the UN agency had some straight talk for the world’s food industry and animal farmers in the form of several formal recommendations: • Stop giving antibiotics to food animals altogether if it’s just to speed their growth - or prevent disease . A CanStock photo image. • Don’t give them to healthy animals unless disease has already been diagnosed in another part of the same herd. • Cut back on the amount of antibiotics given to animals for any reason. • And even when animals become sick, o nly give them antibiotics not considered critically important in the treatment of human infections . (Drugs used in