Antibiotic Resistance at Factory Farms "Scares the Hell Out of" Johns Hopkins Scientists

[ensho]

http://blog.buzzflash.com/analysis/884


-snip-

Nevertheless, I was glued to this shocking piece called simply "Farmacology" in the most recent issue of John Hopkins Magazine on the devastating effects of low level, non-therapeutic antibiotics in industrial agriculture.

It turns out they're making more than just broilers and bacon on your local factory farm; they're growing germs that are resistant to antibiotics. And don't think your commitment to organics or vegetarianism will save you: Your exposure to these superbugs could depend on actions as innocuous as driving behind a truck bound for a Tyson slaughterhouse.

-snip-

Antibiotics are inserted into animal feed not only because they're necessary to ward of the diseases endemic in the cramped and unsanitary conditions of concentrated-animal feeding operations (CAFOs); such additives also make animals grow faster. Silbergeld explains:

"These are feed additives. It's like using antibiotics as hair dye." She adds, "We have this practice of permitting the addition of almost any antibiotic that you can think of to animal feed, for no therapeutic purpose, under conditions that absolutely favor the rise of resistance. We have no controls or management of the wastes. Our food safety system is a shambles. This is a situation that is widely recognized by the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and by others, and nothing happens! It's astounding to me!"

-snip-

Another frightening element to this is the difference between what the conventional wisdom has been on the ability of microbes to mutate, versus the more shocking reality. Silbergeld says that the Darwinian idea of evolution "underestimates the brilliance of microbes":

Molecular biologists now understand that within a microbial community, one microbe can acquire genetic material from another microbe, even a microbe of a much different type, then incorporate it in its own genome and thus acquire resistance to an antibiotic it has not yet even encountered. It's as if bacteria are capable of downloading resistance from a gene database.

-snip-

As with many other so-called innovations in the agricultural industry, the health effects of antibiotic use on CAFOs are poorly understood, which makes me even more thankful for the work of scared scientists.
--------------------------

me too! - thankful for the work of scared scientists.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Another benefits of CAFOs! :sarcasm:

Poor quality product, poor treatment of animals, and now bugs like MRSA. What next?

[glitch]

2. Excellent article with excellent links. Thanks for posting. K & R nt

[Dogtown]

3. k&r n/t

[northernlights]

4. yup.

Johns Hopkins aren't the only scientists scared crapless.

Contrary to popular news and belief, inappropriate use of antibiotics by factory farms, is the *leading* cause of antibiotic resistance. And researchers can't come up with new antibiotics fast enough to replace the old ones.

Forget MRSA -- that's old news.

Resistance to Vicodin -- the last line of defense against MRSA -- has already cropped up in various bacteria. It's only a matter of time before staph picks it up too, if it hasn't already. In fact, last year or so a researcher had some staph accidentally pick up the resistance factor in vitro. He destroyed the culture immediately.

Bacteria routinely share their resistance factors, which are stored genetically in their plasmid rings -- little extra rings of dna that they discard when they die or are overheated.

[redqueen]

6. Vicodin?

Isn't that a painkiller?


I do agree this is part of the reason these drugs are becoming less effective. Along with overprescription by physicians.

And I suspect that the hand sanitizers probably don't help.

[barbtries]

9. vicodin against MRSA?

did you mean vancomycin? vicodin is a painkiller.

[katkat]

17. Vicodin?

Vicodin? A painkiller is an antibiotic? I don't think so.

[CAcyclist]

19. You mean vancomycin nt

[blueworld]

5. It's the tip of the buggy iceberg

Thanks so much for posting this. Although I'm sure the livestock industry is a far greater culprit, I wait with bated breath for them to look into the fruit industry, since most tree fruits are also inoculated with antibiotics several times per season.

[Kansas Wyatt]

7. But but but.... If you changed that, it would hurt Factory Farms.

For God's sake, Corporate America, with U.S. Government help, worked long and hard to get Factory Farms to overtake and crowd out the Family Farms, which makes the Agriculture Industry what it is today... An abundance of cheap eats for Americans.

Now you want to pick on Corporate America & Factory Farms for trying to squeeze out as much profit as possible?
:sarcasm:

[Shireling]

8. Well

How can we treat animals with such disrespect? I don't understand greed

[necso]

10. As well it should.

I remember reacting with horror when an (another) antibiotic that should have been reserved (imo) for fighting drug-resistant-bacteria in humans was approved for use in livestock (factory farms).

(This is a bad idea in that it could (would likely) result in bacteria developing resistance to this drug, then infecting humans (after all, it's in our food), humans who would have one less -- and perhaps someday no -- drug to combat this infection; and it's an indicator that drug-resistant-bacteria are already a problem in our food. ... And then there are the recurrent and widespread problems in processing our food.)

We live in a society where all sorts of antibiotics (and other drugs) are shoveled into our livestock -- and even into stored grain; but where you and I have to get a (costly) prescription to buy a first-line antibiotic ("rationale": we might misuse it!).

[amborin]

11. Michael Pollan also wrote about this n/t

[Critters2]

12. Yet another reason not to eat meat. The complete destruction of the meat industry

would be a great thing.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. Actually, it is another reason to support your local farmers

and to buy only produce or meat that you are certain is raised using traditional methods, organic or better. Factory produce is not much better than factory meat, and to think otherwise is just a fantasy. The real key is small family farms, near your home. Supporting those farmers is the key to sustainability. Feeding meat eaters actual high quality natural meat is the best way to get them to reject factory products, and to reduce their intake of meat. The chances of altering the diets of millions of people are slim, but the chances of getting people to switch to a far superior product is actually achievable. That is my take on it.

[amborin]

13. scary article!

[Holly_Hobby]

14. They have not yet learned that nature will always find a way to

survive Man.

[nolabels]

15. The Most Successful Animals on Earth

http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=14

With people being indoctrinated into the belief of the earth only being a few thousand years old we look to be doomed by our own handiwork :argh:

[katkat]

18. be a vegetarian, have a veggie garden, and eat local

So how long will it take for people to realize this? Plus, it has much less impact on the environment than an omni diet.

I sit around bemused as I read yet another news article about e. coli, like it will affect me? Not.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. E. coli can grow in plant foods

There was an outbreak in Japan a few years ago that was traced to contaminated daikon sprouts.