University of
Calgary researchers say there’s enough evidence to suggest a direct link
between the use of antibiotics in animals and antibiotic resistance.
In a report for
the World Health Organization, they found a frequent use of antibiotics in
animals in the developing world can lead to more serious issues.
Dr. William
Ghali led the review, collecting 170 studies, and he found that number alone to
be surprising.
He says when
the studies are combined statistically into a single, bottom-line result, there
is an association between restricting antibiotic use and lowering resistance
patterns.
Antibiotic
resistance cannot be passed to humans through food or drink, but it can be
passed on from waste leaching into lakes and rivers that supply drinking water,
he says.
Much of the
problem exists in developing countries where good hygiene and sound management
are typically lacking.
“The long and
short of it is that the review that we did suggests that yes, restricting
antibiotic use on farms, using either organic farming methods or voluntary
restrictions, that is associated with less resistance," says Ghali.
The federal
government is jumping on the issue with separate funding announcements last
week.
Four million
dollars is coming from the federal
government’s Genomics Research and Development Initiative for two projects.
One is
develop strategies to deal with antimicrobial resistance ikn the food chain.
This research team hopes to find how resistant bacteria reach humans after they
have gone through the food system.
The other
project, EcoBiomics, is to explore how genomics can be used to enhance and
sustain the health of soil and water systems.
This
research team aims to learn how to increase soil and water microbes which are
essential to the growth of crops.
And
another federal agency, the Canadian Institute of Health Research, announced
that it’s giving $1.1 million to the
University of Regina for research to combat antibiotic resistance.
Dr. Mohan
Babu, an assistant professor at the university, will lead the research and use
the latest in proteomics and genomics technologies, the university says.
E. coli
bacteria will be used to understand the interaction between genes and drugs resistant
to bacteria.
“It’s
really thrilling because I didn’t expect this funding to happen,” Babu said.
What I'd like to know is why the politicians in Ottawa don't seem to know anything about the decades of research that has been done on this issue in the centre on Stone Road, Guelph, that was once within the agriculture department and now is within Health Canada?
