Lots of hoopla this week (when this was written). The FDA is finally acting- it’s asking the big farms to stop using antibiotics when their animals are not sick. What, you say? You mean we use antibiotics for animals that are healthy? You betcha!
First of all, animal husbandry figured out when they crowd their farms with tons of animals, one sniffle becomes an epidemic. So, by feeding the animals antibiotics, they stop infections from dominating their population (and profits).
And, when they did this, they found out something else. By feeding animals antibiotics, they gained weight faster and easier. Which meant more money to the farmers, since a bigger, heavier animal sold for more money. (I’ve written about this before on my blog– and I’ve written that we are finding antibiotics in our rivers and streams long before anyone ever dreamed of blogs- more than 25 years ago.)
But, back to the problem. The FDA did not order the withdrawal of antibiotics. They made this a voluntary program. They gave the drug manufacturers 90 days to tell the FDA if they will comply- within THREE (3) years!!!! And, the incentive for money means only you and I can force the animal farmers to stop. By demanding action, by not buying meat that has been tainted by prophylactic antibiotic use. (FWIW, McDonald’s claims that it refuses to purchase meat that is fed antibiotics, when that regimen exists strictly for weight gain. Hmm- but if it’s claimed to be prophylactic- as detailed two paragraphs above- that’s OK??? I think NOT. Cargill and Tyson’s Foods have a line or two of antibiotic-free meat. Empire Kosher only sells antibiotic-free chicken.)
Why is this an issue that needs correction? Because the free-wheeling use of antibiotics is letting microbes develop resistance to the antibiotics we currently have in our arsenal. Since I went to grad school, the explosive development of new antibiotics has petered out. Nowadays, we are lucky if 1 or 2 new antibiotics are introduced in a year. Compared to the tens of antibiotics approved back only 40 years ago. (The graph below provides results for the past 30 years.)
Now, this problem is not just attributed to our farmers. It’s you and me- and our physicians. We take antibiotics when we get a cold- which is a virus. 60% of all sore throats are treated with antibiotics- even though only streptococcal infections are susceptible to that regiment. After all, antibiotics kill microbes, not virus. We are prescribed antibiotics for 10 or 15 day courses, but we stop taking them after 5, 6, 7, days, when we feel better. And, then- even worse, we dump the antibiotics down the toilet or into the town dump. Where the microbes get a chance to figure out how to develop resistance to these potent drugs.
Now, I’m not saying microbes waited until the present day to develop resistance. No, ever since penicillin was first found in 1928 (and made by a predecessor company using semi-solid substrate), microbes have been developing resistance to our arsenal. (We found penicilin resistant staphylococcus back in 1940!) But, we haven’t been developing new antibiotics and we have been cutting short our therapeutic regimens- that combination is lethal. 2 million folks contract antibiotic resistant infections every year now- in the US alone!
Here’s another astounding statistic. If we were to sell antibiotics by weight and not by the pill (kind of like how we do it for farm use), then more than 80% of our antibiotics are provided to animals- for meat and poultry uses. About 700 different antibiotics are used as part of animal feed.
Believe it or not, there is a microbiologist in Congress. (Really? They are not ALL lawyers.) Representative Louise Slaughter (25th District, NY – Rochester) has been trying for more than a decade to have a bill passed that would force the review (and probably ban) of seven specific antibiotic classes that are included in animal feed protocols. Of course, this Sisyphean task has never been accomplished.
Oh, and you should know that the “Animal Agricultural Alliance” (translation: animal food lobby) claims that precluding the use of antibiotics in feed will make our food more expensive. Much more expensive. It is true that we will probably pay more for our meat- about $ 10 to $ 15 (in current dollars) a YEAR per person. (Updated data from a 35 year old study.)
But that costs is nothing when compared to what antibiotic resistant infections cost us yearly. $ 60 per person annually ($20 billion a year). I consider that a pretty healthy trade-off, don’t you?
This is a big concern. Once antibiotics don’t work, what happens to common infection, surgical interventions, etc…
Over here, we have what we call ‘organic’ meat (& veggie). They are not supposed to use antibiotics. That said, I don’t know how it is controlled…
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This is exactly how things like MRSA or antibiotic resistant TB have developed, Muriel…
And, at least in my book voluntary compliance- when most of the consumers- have no idea how or where it’s food derives- is not the answer.
Thanks for the input and comment!
Antibiotics: love them & use them when necessary… http://t.co/ZVjLVb6gEo
Roy, there was a time when farmers didn’t use all the crap in the feed for their animals. It was the growth of the American Industry that took people off the farms and into the cities. Suddenly, the need for food growers to produce enough food to feed everyone in cities brought forth new formulas of feed to make the animal become slaughter weight quicker. The irony is now the “people” want what they had before this all happened. Organic food or food without chemicals. Really, all the farmer got was the government coming in and trying to control how they did things. The farmer never grew rich from either process.
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Shawn…
I think it was the corporatization of the animal farms- places with unpronounceable names like IBPX (or similar) that decided to maximize animal production in minimal space. And, they kept acquiring more firms and coalescing the animals into smaller places…
Organic animal farms may not be the answer- since there is no clear definition (or regulation) of such claims. IS untreated manure really better than a chemical formulation? I know it’s not.
We – that’s you and me- have to become more educated consumers, demand to know where and how our food is derived and purchase accordingly.
All this makes me feel sick. Literally. We need to be happier with producing less in this country, in the way of animals, anyway, instead of always trying to produce MORE and more in less and less space. We live near a very large cattle feedyard, and I’ve switched to buying my meat from a farmer who raises a few cattle on pasture, rather than buying those poor wretched animals. It certainly can’t be good for us to be drinking all those antibiotics in our groundwater. yuck!
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It’s not just the groundwater, Amy. These drugs end up in our rivers (hence the bisexual fish), where ever growing census of microbes can learn how to counteract our special concoctions to eradicate them when they invade a few of us (i.e., we get infections)…NOT good.
Thanks for the visit and the comment.
Oh- and I’m not for the penned or caged concept, either…
This is such a complicated problem, both in animals and humans. That’s a shocking fact that animals are given antibiotics when they’re not sick. I won’t eat meat–at all.
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Francene…
In no special order… Many folks have elected to not eat meat for a variety of reasons. (It can be claimed that the Supreme Being hoped we all would be vegetarians, but acceded to our desire for flesh- in oh, so many, ways…)
I have never understood why the FDA afforded the pharma-animal husbandry industries the right to employ our precious antibiotics for other than illness. (I don’t feel we should withhold the use of antibiotics for a sick animal. I’m not sure I would feed it to a whole flock of sheep if they developed illness, but, that’s another matter, too.) Prophylactically? NO freaking way. And, for weight gain… STOP THAT NOW- unless we have a drug that has no human merit that we are so employing.
So, you can see – even as a biochemical engineer- I have conflicted emotions about this- but want to use my scientific knowledge to benefit humankind. That’s the priority!
Too much mass-produced quick fixes.
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I am not quite sure that is the issue, David…
It certainly is mass-produced animals for slaughter- and profit…
But, I understand that many a small farmer uses antibiotics in his/her feed to fatten up their cattle…
Why don’t my drugs work? | http://t.co/FDVNOqYckz via @Adjuvancy << Too much mass-produced quick fixes.
Scary how drugs become resistant and how they can even evolve to doing that. On a side note you have me curious about politicians with scientific and other backgrounds.
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The bacteria are not stupid- they have the same evolutionary skills we do. They want to survive, and if we feed the drugs to everything- and let them stay in our waterways- then they have a long time to get used to them. And, if we stop taking our drugs early (not follow the whole course), then those bugs that no longer create all the symptoms (which is why we stop taking them early) are still around and have survived that first dose of drugs. That acquaintance means the next time they are hit, they won’t be overwhelmed- and may even mutate to render them resistant. And, it goes from there…
Don’t get too curious about politicians with scientific backgrounds- there are way too few of them. So, they stand out like sore thumbs in the mass of 535…
Too much animal antibiotic use. Why don’t my drugs work? http://t.co/q0z14C0A9Q
This sounds like a recipe for a plague to me. One of my kids had a MRSA a few years back. Until then, I didn’t know these things existed. I remember when there were lots of antibiotics being created. What accounts for the drop?
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Not the recipe for the plague- but the recipe for all kinds of diseases that we won’t be able to lick easily. And, MRSA is a prime example…
Re: the drop in new antibiotic development- there are a slew of reasons, Ann. First- the easy picking of the low hanging fruit has been completed. Secondly, the amount of time and money to find the harder drugs- with a smaller pot at the end of the rainbow is another. Another impediment is that we now know that some of us are going to have adverse reactions to some of the newer drugs- and if it is not going to work for everyone (or for a less frequent disease), then the pot of gold is probably a pot of tin…
You get the idea…
Why don’t my drugs work? Here’s why you should NOT eat antibiotic-fed meat: http://t.co/6panWVWmap
This is a fantastic article, Roy. I’ve known about the nasty use of antibiotics in farm animals for a while and am always sure that I buy meats that were not raised on antibiotics (the same with our milk) and are humanely raised. I think it’s way past due to clean up this mess in the farming industry and three years from now is too late, and a voluntary program is too weak. Greed seems to always win, which endangers us all. I will be sure to share this!
Thanks for that great addition, Suerae. You are right on all those accounts.
excellent post. I don’t think that my dad every took a pill and he’s 99. Scary what’s happening on the farm!
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Thanks, Carol….
Glad to hear your dad never needed medicine! I am not going to have such a claim…
But, I certainly don’t want the farm animals to make my medicines useless, either!