Use of antibiotics in animals harmful to humans?
Category: Health
May 2, 2010 | BY Stephanie Kuo
Scientists have also recognized that types of bacteria not traditionally associated with foodborne safety are also growing more resistant to antibiotics. “Antibiotic usage can create bloodborne infections that originate from animals and meat,” Tencer says. “For instance, Enterococcus is something that we’ve noticed emerge recently.”
Enterococcus is a bacterial strain known to cause bloodborne infections like urinary tract infection and meningitis. Health officials also stress that because blood is a naturally sterile environment, the presence of bacteria like Enterococcus in the bloodstream can become particularly dangerous. Further, this particular strain of bacteria concerns health officials the most because of its high level of antibiotic resistance to important drugs like vancomycin.
Continued antibiotic usage risks compromising human therapies as resistant bacteria like Enterococcus begins to develop cross-resistance. This occurs when bacteria’s resistance to one drug also makes them resistant to other, similar drugs—diminishing the scope of viable antibiotics that can be used to combat bacterial illnesses. Antibiotic resistance, in light of this, becomes a much more urgent problem, says Tencer.
“Antibiotics are the miracle drugs of the century, and if they stop working, modern medicine as we know it will be very different,” she says. “Anytime an antibiotic is injected into the community—whether through people or livestock—we are essentially making them less effective.”
In response to this concern, U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the only microbiologist serving in Congress, has authored the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act. The legislation would require that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deny any new animal antibiotic drugs unless the federal government is certain the drugs will not contribute to antimicrobial resistance.
The bill would also ban the routine, or non-therapeutic, use of antibiotics in food-producing animals. The meat and feed industry, as well as the American Veterinary Medical Association, is opposed to such a ban.
Organic farmer Cunningham, who owns Coyote Creek Farm in Elgin, Texas, avoids contributing to these epidemics by raising his cows solely on grass because “that’s how cows were made,” he says.
“I want to be healthy,” Cunningham says. He refuses to feed his cows heavy grains, which he explains is sometimes so disturbing to the animal’s digestive system that it can make the animal seriously ill if the feeding is not done gradually or if the animal is not continually administered antibiotics.
And that’s exactly the problem.
Conventional farmers, who put their cows into CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations), raise them on very high-protein and high-carb feed, he says. “It’s like feeding children nothing but cake and ice cream. Their organs will fail. The highest quantity of antibiotics then goes to the sick cattle, and then the bacteria that eventually grow resistant to those antibiotics trickle down to the people.”
Cunningham questions this conventional route to farming and wonders why it still remains in practice, despite the research that he believes should dictate farming and agricultural trends. “I just can’t fathom it. They’re ignoring the facts to make an extra buck,” he says.
Tencer, though, asserts that antibiotic use cannot be discontinued completely, expressing that not all purposes are necessarily deplorable. “Disease prevention is still very important. Farmers mix antibiotics into the feed and water of animals confined in crowded conditions where disease grows and spreads easily.”
Texas A&M professor Davis also agrees that antibiotic use is sometimes the most beneficial way to sustain healthy animals. “Antibiotic use is a proactive rather than reactive measure,” he says, explaining that it’s much easier to prevent animal illness than to treat it after an animal is already sick, which could risk contaminating the entire farm.
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.
