Go to the the Centers for Disease Control's web page to learn more about the plan to combat anti-microbial resistance.
In the 1940’s antibiotics were hailed as ”miracle drugs.” Illnessesthat were once incurable fell easily to the new medicine’s power. Butnow, many believe the overuse of these drugs has led to a decline intheir ability to combat disease. The more the drugs are used – the morebacteria can change and resist treatment. The Great Lakes RadioConsortium’s Mark Brush reports on what many believe is one of the bigabuses of antibiotics… using them to bring food to our table:
Transcript
In the 1940’s antibiotics were hailed as “miracle drugs.” Illnesses that were once incurable fell easily to the new medicine’s power. But now, many believe the overuse of these drugs has led to a decline in their ability to combat disease. The more the drugs are used – the more bacteria can change and resist treatment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush reports on what many believe is one of the big abuses of antibiotics, using them to bring food to our table.
Doctors are worried. They’re staying up late and peering into their microscopes. They’re trying to figure out why bacteria that fight antibiotic treatments are on the rise.
Doctors sometimes overuse antibiotics and this is one of the main reasons that there’s an increase in resistant bacteria found in humans, but many experts believe that antibiotic use on farm animals also plays a big role.
By the mid 1950’s approximately 2 million pounds of antibiotics were produced in the u-s each year. Today 50 million pounds are produced, and almost 20 million pounds of that are given to farm animals. Some antibiotics are used to treat sick animals, but they’re also mixed with feed to fatten livestock before they’re slaughtered.
Mike Balander is an associate professor in animal science at Michigan State University. He says mixing antibiotics with animal feed is a
Common practice among chicken farmers.
“If we feed very low levels of antibiotics to the birds then we find that we get a 4 to 5% better growth rate of the birds with no increase in feed consumption… the cost effectiveness is there and that’s why it’s used. If it was not cost effective, we would not be using it.”
The practice of feeding antibiotics to animals began in the mid 50’s after people spotted trophy sized fish downstream from a penicillin factory.
Researchers traced these super-fish directly to antibiotics being dumped into the stream.
Before the use of antibiotics, raising large flocks and herds required a large amount of Space. Farmers kept the animals apart in order to prevent an outbreak of disease.
By using antibiotics, farmers were able to raise many more animals – with a better growth rate – in the same amount of space.
Mike Cook is a professor of animal science at the University of Wisconsin:
“We could go back to the old systems in which animals are less consolidated, give them more floor space, and we could probably improve growth and not even need antibiotics.”
But, cook adds, to go back to the old ways – Farmers would have to double the amount of Chicken coops and hog pens in order to produce the amount of meat consumed today. For the poultry industry alone, that would be a lot of
Extra chicken coops… 7 and a half billion chickens are grown in the U.S. each year.
Meanwhile, resistant strains of organisms that cause human disease, such as salmonella, campylobacter, and E. Coli are being found in Europe and the United States.
The food and drug administration first proposed restricting the use of antibiotics as growth promotants more than two decades ago. The drug and farm lobbies cried foul – saying that the evidence linking antibiotic use on the farm to human illness was lacking.
At the time, they were right… and proving that antibiotic use in animals leads to human illness continues to be difficult today.
Dr. Stuart levy is a professor of microbiology at Tufts University:
“When you use the same antibiotics for people and for animals it’s very hard to know exactly where that resistant bacteria came from… all you can do is postulate that if there are all these resistant strains that are being propagated on the farm then couldn’t it possibly be a contributor the problem in people and many of us have said yes!”
But drug producers say a decision on whether or not to remove antibiotics as growth promotants needs to be based on definitive scientific evidence:
“You can’t take these actions – the law doesn’t allow you to take these actions – science doesn’t allow you to take these actions based on presumption.”
Dr. Richard Carnevale is vice president for scientific affairs for the Animal Health Institute. The institute represents agricultural and veterinary drug producers.
“For people to say we don’t need these antibiotics, well, that’s their opinion. It’s easy for them to say they’re not needed, but its been in our system for 40 years, they have been proven safe and effective through all the FDA testing, and right now there hasn’t been enough of a link to human illness for FDA to take action on it.”
But evidence linking antibiotic use on the farm to human illness is mounting.
Last year, a study in Minnesota found that the use of fluoroquinolones in the poultry industry led to resistant bacteria found in humans.
And another recent study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, linked a fatality caused by a resistant strain of salmonella to a swine operation in Europe.
The European Union felt the evidence was strong enough to ban the use of four
Antibiotics used for growth promotion, and Sweden has outlawed the practice altogether.
Here in the U.S., the increase in resistant bacteria recently led to the creation of a federal interagency task force. The task force is developing an action plan to help combat the resistance problem.
Officials hope to have a final draft completed within a year.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.