Animal antibiotics debate heats up

 

 

The use of antibiotics in livestock has been an ongoing debate, and it may become a key world health issue in 2010 after a recent report claims that over-usage of animal antibiotics kill 65,000 US consumers every year.

 

The excessive use of antibiotics in animals has led to the emergence of drug-resistant strains of bacteria, which could cause great harm to public health. The deaths of 65,000 people exceed the combined annual deaths caused by breast and prostrate cancer, according to AP.

 

The drug resistant strains are having an impact worldwide as diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and staphylococcus infections are emerging in new and deadly forms, according to researchers.

 

Last year, 35 million pounds of antibiotics were consumed in the US, with 70% given to pigs, chickens and cows. Worldwide consumption of antibiotics saw 50% going to livestock.

 

US farmers apply 8% more antibiotics * to their livestock each year to cure lung, skin or blood infections, but 13% were administered to healthy animals to boost growth rate. Antibiotics save as much as 30% in feed costs among young swine, although the savings fade as pigs get older, according to a new USDA study.

 

Activists have protested about the issue for some time. Even the World Health Organisation and the US government saw this serious enough to issue warnings and legislation to limit the use of antibiotics for non-health reasons.

 

However, pro-antibiotic organisations have spent over US$200 million this year to battle legislation, including the newly proposed limits on antibiotic use. They argue that drugs keep animals healthy and meat costs low, and have defeated a series of proposed limits on their use.

 

More than 20% of all human cases of a deadly drug-resistant staph infection in the Netherlands could be traced to an animal strain, according to a study published online in a CDC journal. Federal food safety studies routinely find drug resistant bacteria in beef, chicken and pork sold in supermarkets, and 20% of salmonella-infected people have a drug resistant strain, according to the CDC.

 

Johns Hopkins University health sciences professor Ellen Silbergeld, who has reviewed every major study on this issue, said there is no doubt drug use in farm animals is a major driver of antimicrobial resistance worldwide.

 

Data shows that antibiotics are in wastewaters and it goes to aquaculture and everywhere else, said Dr. Stuart Levy, an expert on antibiotic resistance at Tufts University in Boston. Antibiotic use in animals impacts everything, he added.

 

Some US lawmakers continue to fight for a new law that would ban farmers from feeding antibiotics to their animals unless they are sick. Trade issues also lent pressure: the EU and other developed countries have adopted strong limits against antibiotics. Russia recently banned pork imports from two US plants after detecting levels of antibiotics in the shipments, and the antimicrobial issue has been a constant thorn in the US-EU trade relations.

 

Laura Rogers, who directs the Pew Charitable Trusts Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming in Washington D.C., said poor regulations and oversight of drug use in livestock have led to US consumers not knowing what their food is treated with or how often. She added that there is no system in place to test meat for dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

 

The FDA said without new laws its options are limited. The agency approved antibiotic use in animals in 1951, before concerns about drug resistance were recognised. The only way to withdraw that approval is through a drug-by-drug process that can take years of study, review and comment.