Use of antibiotics in animals harmful to humans?
Category: Health
May 2, 2010 | BY Stephanie Kuo
The old adage goes that “you are what you eat.” And before, this conventional wisdom applied merely to those who would bite off more than they could or should possibly chew. It means that in order to be healthy, one must eat healthy.
But recently, this age-old nutritional credo is adopting a brand new, yet much more precarious, connotation. No longer is the caloric intake the only dish in the heap of American dietary concerns. The predicament for Americans now is not what goes on or with the meat, but what lives in the meat itself.
Scientific discoveries are finding that bacteria residing on livestock are growing more resistant to antibiotics—like methicillin, penicillin and tetracycline—commonly used to fight bacterial diseases in humans. The conventional system of administering antibiotics to livestock is proving hazardous to humans who consume processed meat. In response, large meat companies are turning to organic farmers like Jerry Cunningham of Elgin, Texas, who believes that going all natural is the only way to go and that anything more complicated than plain old grass and water jeopardizes health sustainability.
“You wouldn’t spray insecticide on your salad. Then you wouldn’t put antibiotics or other harmful chemicals in your meat,” Cunningham says.
“There will be bacteria on livestock regardless. That’s natural,” points out Brise Tencer, a food representative for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C. “But once farmers begin injecting antibiotics into livestock, the bacteria in those organisms become more and more resistant to those antibiotics.”
As a result, humans who consume meat from livestock treated with antibiotics can become more susceptible to the diseases that bacteria tote around on animals and in food.
“There may not necessarily be more illness, but when an illness does occur, it becomes significantly more difficult to treat,” Tencer explains.
If a person ingests any resistant bacteria via improperly cooked meat and becomes ill, he or she may no longer respond properly to antibiotic treatment. One would have to take higher-powered antibiotics or extended doses in order to effectively counteract illnesses, says Michael Davis, Ph.D., poultry science professor at Texas A&M University. The most common of these illnesses results from foodborne pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli, which are prevalent on unclean or undercooked food.
Tencer adds, “More recently, we are learning that staph infections are becoming more resistant as well.”
A strain of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, that is present on animals can be transmitted to people simply through exposure to infected livestock and not solely through consumption. “That means farmers and ranchers who handle livestock daily are also exposed to resistant bacteria,” says Tencer.
In addition, Campylobacter—a bacterial strain now recognized as one of the main causes of bacterial foodborne diseases—can infiltrate stainless steel kitchens through poultry and can cause illness when people consume raw or undercooked poultry meat. While this does not always precipitate severe illness, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that there are two million to four million Campylobacter infections per year, resulting in as many as 250 deaths each year in the United States.
Tags: Animals, Antibiotic Resistance, featured, Health, legislation, Meat Industry, Poultry
About the Author
Stephanie Kuo: A graduate of Plano Senior High School, Stephanie is a sophomore at The University of Texas at Austin, studying copy-editing and design in the School of Journalism. Last summer, she interned at a small community newspaper, where she worked full-time as a writer and editor. Currently, she is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and serves as webmaster and service chair at the UT chapter. Stephanie hopes to make it in the world of magazines someday, writing and editing for publications like Vanity Fair. Stephanie affiliates herself with the Democratic Party, with liberal perspectives on issues such as capital punishment, health care, and abortion. She is extremely interested in foreign policy and the need for the United States to form more diplomatic ties with foreign nations.
