In response to widely proffered criticism by US health and consumer groups, three poultry industry giant, Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms and Foster Farms, have begun quietly cutting back on the labels of antibiotics fed to health chickens.
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Campaigners have long argued that the proliferation of antibiotics in food has caused a growing resistance in human bodies to other useful medicinal antibiotics; and an increase in super germs resistant to antibiotics.
No regulation requires farmers to report on levels of antibiotic use to federal government, so it will be difficult to verify this assertion, however the Keep Antibiotics Working campaign coalition has highlighted several scientific studies confirming the link between overuse of antibiotics and the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria in meat and poultry products. For example, bacteria resistance in humans rose from about zero to nearly 18% after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permitted the poultry industry to use fluoroquinolones to treat chickens in 1995.
The poultry industry has maintained meanwhile that the drugs prevent infection in chickens and enhance growth. The National Chicken Council insists that farmers always use antibiotics responsibly.
Cipro-related criticism
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By GlobalDataThe turnaround has come due to debate over an antibiotic called Baytril that is closely related to Cipro, the drug used to treat anthrax and foodborne illnesses caused by campylobacter and salmonella in humans. Both drugs are manufactured by Bayer AG.
Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms and Foster Farms, which between them sell 216 million pounds of chicken a year (a third of all the chickens consumed annually in the US), now say that they are voluntarily taking out antibiotics from their respective chicken feeds. Foster Farms says it uses no antibiotics period, except to treat sick birds. Tyson says it has cut back on antibiotics similar to human drugs, and insists antibiotics are only used when a flock is at risk of disease.
Perdue says it will not use antibiotics the same as or similar to those used by humans. Dr Hank Engster, VP technical services for Perdue, told the New York Times: “The primary reason is that we want to make absolutely sure if there is any question that we are in no way, shape or form contributing to antibiotic resistance in humans. We want to make sure there is no overuse.”
This has been interpreted as a tacit recognition of the public health issues at stake, but it is also down to the refusal of the firms’ large corporate customers, including McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Popeye’s, to buy chicken treated with Cipro.
Tyson admitted that the decision was an economic one. Company spokesman Ed Nicholson told the New York Times: “We looked at the cost-benefit ratio of antibiotics and determined we could just as effectively do it without them. If we can raise birds without doing it, why do it?”
Antibiotics for sick animals?
Consumers can still not tell whether a company’s chickens have been treated with the Cipro-related drug however; and treating one sick chicken with the drug requires treating the entire flock (which may number up to 30,000 birds). Only buying organic meat, or products labelled “no antibiotics” may give some guarantee.
A public advocacy group, The Union of Concerned Scientists, has estimated that US animals consume 26.6 millions pounds of antibiotics every year, but that of this amount, only 2 million pounds are used on sick animals.
