Farmers and feed companies are going to face intense
pressure soon to stop adding antibiotics to rations.
The manufacturers of antibiotics and feed have already
agreed to stop using them as growth promotants, but there is a gaping loophole
that allows their continued use for “disease prevention”.
Now that may be banned to preserve the effectiveness of
antibiotics in human medicine.
Microbiologist Jason Tetro of Toronto writes in the Globe
and Mail today that recent discoveries that Staphylococcus aureus Clonal
Complex 398 ((CC398) is turning up in a lot of places should serve as a wakeup
call for the agriculture industry and government regulators.
He said the medical profession got its wakeup call in 2011
when a new strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to all antibiotics emerged.
After that, antibiotics fell from the treatment of first
resort to last resort, he said.
He predicts the same will become true for agriculture.
CC398 all comes from agriculture, and mainly from hog farms.
It was first identified a decade ago, writes Tetro, and was
found capable of passing from pigs to people and from people to pigs.
In 2009, it turned up in people in Manhattan.
In 2010, research indicated it’s turning up in the general
population.
This September, researchers in England found it in the blood
of hospital patients and in the environment. Their genetic research traced all of these CC398
bacteria to livestock.
Tetro said the Canadian agriculture industry needs to stop
using antibiotics and to develop alternatives, such as boosting immune systems
and reducing stress levels on livestock and poultry.
He urges consumers to shop for meat and poultry products
that are raised without the use of antibiotics because “Let’s face it. Money
talks.”
