ANTIBIOTICS in meat! It's about time....

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Flagstaff Lab Looks Into Antibiotics In Livestock

2/5/2010 8:08:58 AM

Researchers in Flagstaff are looking at what happens when farmers routinely feed

antibiotics to the beef, chicken, pork, turkey, shrimp and salmon you might find

at the local grocery store.

They're buying meat and seafood from grocery stores here and in Los Angeles,

Florida, Chicago, and the District of Columbia, to investigate what kinds of

bacteria live on it.

They expect to find the majority of their samples will have some ugly stuff:

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria capable of infecting you by kitchen

cross-contamination, even if you're a vegetarian living with omnivores.

" We think that it is contributing significantly to the antibiotic resistance

problem in people, " said Lance B. Price, a biologist and director of a

Translational Genomics (TGen) North unit that does research bearing on human

health and the organisms living on us.

Animals in many commercial feeding operations in the United States — Europe,

including the world's top pork producer, Denmark, has banned the practice — feed

their animals antibiotics routinely when they are well, sometimes mixed with

food, to help them grow faster and remain healthy in crowded conditions.

" In industrial food animal production, one of their standard tools is to use

antibiotics, " Price said.

The low doses of antibiotics over time kills less-resistant gut bacteria in the

animals, leaving a tougher strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to reproduce.

Problem is, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria from the uncooked meat in the

United States has the potential to eventually enter a human body when picked up

off an unclean countertop or cutting board, Price said. But some of the more

inexpensive and widely used antibiotics are useless if you need them to fight an

infection.

This has been the case for vegetarians, some of whom have had

antibiotic-resistant E. coli later traced to chickens, Price said, and for

poultry workers.

One analysis put the cost of fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including

antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA), at $4-5 billion annually in the United

States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that of

those who contract antibiotic-resistant infections, 90,000 die annually.

The CDC has called the increasing ineffectiveness of antibiotics a top concern.

" Because of our profligate use of antibiotics in the animal food system, we're

creating a huge public health nightmare for ourselves, " said Margaret Mellon,

director of the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned

Scientists.

Added Mellon: " The impacts of antibiotic resistance on our health system are

just enormous. "

The strains of some bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics are more

virulent, leading to sicker patients hospitalized longer for such things as E.

coli or salmonella.

Physicians also share the blame, for overprescribing antibiotics to patients in

cases where they won't be helpful, Mellon said.

The use of antibiotics in healthy animals for food production has drawn the

attention of the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the American Medical Association,

and lately, Capitol Hill, in the form of a bill to limit antibiotic use in

livestock.

Price has testified on behalf of that bill, saying that any animal farming

operation that relies on antibiotics daily to keep animals healthy needs to

reconsider its practices.