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About
half of all antibiotics used in the UK each year are given to farm
animals, often to prevent, rather than to treat, disease. The drugs
allow livestock and poultry farmers to control the inevitable disease
problems which arise when thousands of animals are crowded together indoors.
It is
generally accepted that farm antibiotic use contributes to the
problem of antibiotic resistance in food poisoning infections, such
as salmonella and campylobacter, but Richard Young, organic farmer
and policy adviser to the Soil Association, argues in the latest
issue of The Food Magazine that over-reliance on antibiotics in
farming is also increasing the number of other serious infections in
humans which fail to respond to most antibiotics.
An estimated
30,000 people each year in the UK are affected by E. coli infections
that are resistant to almost all antibiotics and up to 4,200 of these
are thought to die, partly due to treatment failures. The problem is
caused by types of antibiotic resistance known as ESBLs
(extended-spectrum beta-lactamases), which are spreading both in
humans and farm animals. Between 2001 and 2006, the percentage of
ESBL blood poisoning caused by E. coli rose from 0 to12%, with those
affected with an ESBL strain being more than twice as likely to die.
Antibiotic
use is widespread. A survey of 7,120 people by the Department of
Health found that almost one third had taken a course of antibiotics
within the last year, often unnecessarily for minor ailments, or
those which do not even respond to antibiotics. As a result doctors
are coming under increased pressure to prescribe antibiotics more sparingly.
Similar
pressure has not yet been applied to veterinary surgeons and farmers
in the UK or in food-exporting counties, who still give large
quantities of antibiotics to farm animals preventatively, as well as
to treat specific illnesses, and who are also increasingly using
drugs classified as critically important in human medicine.
ESBL E. coli
have been found in imported poultry meat and home-produced cattle,
and studies in other countries have implicated food in the spread of
infections to humans.
A new type of
MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus), has also now
arisen in pigs and other farm animals, and is passing to humans. MRSA
(ST398) is spreading rapidly across continental Europe and some other
countries, in part due the heavy use of antibiotics in pig feed.
In the
Netherlands, approximately 40% of pigs and some chickens, calves and
dairy cows already carry this strain. The most immediate threat is to
those who work with animals. 50% of Dutch pig farmers have been found
to be carrying the strain, and several dozen have been hospitalised
due to serious MRSA infections. This MRSA strain has also been found
at low levels in a high percentage of Dutch pork, poultry and beef.
Luckily, the
UK has not imported live pigs from affected countries for some years
and MRSA ST398 has not yet been found in British farm animals.
However, this strain has now been identified in three humans in the
UK with no direct link to farm animals, giving rise to concerns that
it could be spreading to the UK on imported meat.
Richard Young
said, 'The use of antibiotics is a cornerstone of intensive
livestock production and because this is such an enormous industry
there will inevitably be a reluctance to change. No one wants to stop
farmers using antibiotics when they are genuinely needed. However,
there are a number of very serious problems now developing and the
evidence increasingly suggests that food is part of the problem. As
such we need an urgent review of the overall situation with clear
recommendations to prevent an impending crisis.'
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