The Food and Drug Administration is pulling from the market an antibiotic used on pigs because it could lead to cancer risk in humans. But the agency says people don't have to avoid eating bacon and other pork.

The FDA said Friday it is removing the drug called carbadox to treat swine because it may leave behind a potential toxic residue in humans once eaten. The FDA also warned of a potential cancer risk "based on the assumed lifetime of consuming pork liver or other pork products containing carbadox residues."

The move comes amid growing concern that antibiotic use among livestock could lead to antibiotic resistance in humans.

The agency made the move after re-examining the safety of the product used to combat bacterial infections such as pig dysentery.

"The manufacturer of carbadox has failed to provide sufficient scientific data to demonstrate the safety of this drug given evidence that carbadox may result in carcinogenic residues," said Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine.

The agency said it isn't recommending people "make changes in their food choices while the agency is working to remove carbadox from the market."

"Short-term changes in diet are unlikely to affect a person's lifetime risk. However, removal of the product from the market will reduce the lifetime risk to consumers."

Public health agencies such as the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that antibiotic use in animals for unnecessary uses such as weight gain are helping develop antibiotic resistance in humans.

The reason is resistance can build up in microbes in the animal, and those resistant microbes are transferred to the human when the meat is consumed.