Animal Agriculture Boosts Antibiotic Resistance

The Epoch Times,

Wed Jul 1, 2009 6:40 pm (PDT)

United Poultry Concerns
26 June 2009

"Animal Agriculture Boosts Antibiotic Resistance,"
The Epoch Times, June 24, 2009

Cephalosporin resistance appears to be "moving lockstep with use of the
drug in poultry production."

"The way these birds are forced to live is the opposite of what nature
intended. They're living in a very intensive type of slum situation
where diseases are going to advance and become more virulent and it's a
paradise for pathogens. . . ." UPC President Karen Davis quoted in
"Animal Agriculture Boosts Antibiotic Resistance," by Joan Delaney, in
The Epoch Times, about the abuse and misuse of antibiotics in farmed
animals worldwide.

In Canada, for example, "the use of cephalosporin in chicken hatcheries
across the country is causing resistance in humans to this class of
antibiotics, according to a recent report in the Canadian Medical
Association Journal (CMAJ)." To read the entire article, click on:
[http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/18597/].

The Epoch Times: "A Fresh Look at Our Changing World" is an
independent voice in print and on the web with offices across five
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Excerpt from "Animal Agriculture Boosts Antibiotic Resistance," by
Joan Delaney:

Paradise for Pathogens

"The industry does not just use antibiotics to control disease levels,
they also use antibiotics for the equal if not surpassing reason in
meat-type animals to enhance growth rate and size," says Karen Davis,
president of United Poultry Concerns, a Virginia-based organization
dedicated to the respectful treatment of domestic fowl.

Davis, who just released an updated version of her book Prisoned
Chickens, Poisoned Eggs, says the stress, overcrowding, and unsanitary
conditions inherent in animal agriculture foster a host of diseases,
hence the need for high antibiotic use.

Davis lives in a big poultry producing area on the eastern shore of
Virginia, where it's not uncommon for as many as 30,000 birds to be
housed in a 600-foot building.

"The way these birds are forced to live is the opposite of what nature
intended. They're living in a very intensive type of slum situation
where diseases are going to advance and become more virulent and it's a
paradise for pathogens - that's just the reality of how the birds are
living," she says.

Poultry litter, an important part of big broiler [chicken] operations,
is also a culprit in the problem of resistance. Researchers at the
University of Georgia found that litter from industrial chicken houses
harbours a "huge reservoir" of resistant genes, called integrons, which
"promote the spread and persistence of clusters of varied antibiotic
resistance genes."*

Such litter, according to Davis, is rendered and reused in livestock
feed, fertilizer, and other areas in the animal agriculture industry.
A study by the Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists found
that tetracycline, penicillin, erythromycin, and other antimicrobials
that are valuable for humans are used extensively in the absence of
disease for non-therapeutic purposes in livestock production.

*See p. 107 in Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs.

--
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compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl.
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