Prof. Smith.
Class.
ENG101.
Diana Coll.
05/06/14
Research Paper.
Antibiotics and
Food Animal Industry.
According
to the Physicians for Social Responsibility a research in 2000 found on average
every American consume nearly 195 pounds of meat (red meat, poultry, and fish)
per year. To reach the demand of meat there are many farms devoted to
mass-producing cattle. Most of
this meat comes from an industrial meat system plagued with a variety of
problems such as salmonella and to fight against this disease farmers are using
antibiotics to stop spread of this virus. Since are we eating so much meat, can
you imagine the amount of antibiotics we have to process second handily? However
by using these antibiotics on animals, it also poses a threat to human life.
Antibiotics use on animals should be limited because they can lead to
antibiotic resistance in humans. I feel this practice is irresponsible because
it may lead to many problems especially in human health.
It is
estimated that non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in the livestock production
accounts for nearly 80 percent of all antibiotics in the United States. An a
good example of this non-therapeutic drug use is the administration of low
levels of antibiotics to animals through feed and water to prevent disease
because of the miserable conditions in which those animals are raised. They
grow in close confinement often standing or laying in their own waste, and
because of this, animals are under constant stress that inhibits their immune
systems and make them more prone to infections. The other reason the farmers
use antibiotics is to make the animal gain weight and grow more because the
antibiotics kill the flora of the animal that would normally thrive in the
animals intestines, there by allowing the animal to utilize their food more effectively.
The routine of feeding the animals with antibiotics for growth promotion and
disease prevention contribute to the present problem that humans face that is
antibiotics resistance .
A lot of
antibiotics given to cattle are the same antibiotics doctors use to treat human
illnesses. For example neomycin and tetracycline are available to be use in
cattle feed. Tetracycline is related to oxytetracycline and chlorletracycline
are use to prevent and treat pneumonia in calves but they are also used in
lower concentration to help calves grow faster and improve their feed
efficiency. Neomycin is a component of cattle antibiotics for growth promotion
and this is one of several others common human antibiotics on list. Procaine,
penicillin, benzathine penicillin, ampicillin, amoxicillin and sprctinomycin
are approved and used in cattle too, and the others antibiotics used for cattle
are not on the human list, but a lot of them are members of drug “families”
that include some important human antibiotics. As an example of this
enrofloxacin cattle antibiotic, is not used on people but is closely related to
drugs like ciprofloxacin, that is very important for human especially
benzathine, penicillin and procaine because this antibiotics are the ones who
fights some of the strongest bacteria in the human body. These antibiotics are
use to treat many different types of severe infections including strep and
staph infections, diphtheria, meningitis, gonorrhea, and syphilis. They are also
used to prevent infections of the heart valves in people with certain heart
conditions who need to have dental work or surgery. In conclusion antibiotics
affect the meat from an animal that is treated with them therefore the human is
also affected by this condition.
The Center
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 60,000 American die
each year for antibiotic resistant disease. Inappropriate use and overuse of
antibiotics in human medicine was often the main cause of this problem but now increased
because of the inappropriate use that comes from agriculture.
Antibiotic resistance
is similar to how immunization helps the human body fight disease by exposing
the immune system to a small amount of virus or bacteria. When bacteria are continually
exposed to a small amount of antibiotics they can develop immunity to them. The
Center of Disease Control estimates that each year in the U.S almost two
million people acquire infections, 70 percent of which are resistant to at
least one commonly used antibiotic, this problem of antibiotic resistance has
accelerated through the use of antibiotics in animals for non-therapeutic
treatment. According to a new report by the FDA approximately 80 percent of all
antibiotics used in the U.S are for farm animals
There is
evidence that antibiotic in animals we eat created antibiotic resistance in
humans but there is insufficient evidence as how big the problem it is says Dr.
Margaret Mellon, with The Union of Concerned Scientists. A study published in
the New England Journal of Medicine of February 6, 2002 research found links
that strongly suggested that people who developed (cipro resistant) bacteria
had acquired them by eating pork that were contaminated with salmonella. This research concludes that salmonella flouroquine can be
spread from swine to humans and, therefore the use of fouroquinolones on food
animals should be prohibited. Another New England journal of Medicine study
from October 18 2001, found that 20 percent of ground meat obtained in
supermarkets contained salmonella, of the 20 percent that was contaminated with
salmonella, 84 percent was resistant to at least one form of antibiotic. By trying
to prevent disease in animals opening the possibility of humans to get sick by
creating antibiotic resistance. Therefore the government should control more
the antibiotics in animals.
One of the
most common infections in both humans and animals is salmonella, which is a bacteria.
The initial source of salmonella in humans is often from contaminated feed such
as beef, poultry, milk and eggs. Most people infected with these bacteria
develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours infection, in some patients;
the salmonella infection may spread from the intestine to the blood system and
then to other body sites and can cause death unless this person is treated
promptly with antibiotics. Treatment of clinical salmonella should be including
an approved and effective antimicrobial drug such as ceftiofor, florfenicol, or
ampicillin. Every year, approximatety 24,000 cases of salmonella are reported
in the United States but because many cases are not diagnosed or reported, the
actual number of infection may be twenty-nine percent or more times greater of
the actual number. It is estimated that approximately 400 persons die each year
with acute salmonella and some times is difficult to treat this condition
because oh the antibiotic resistance we are facing
The World
Health Organization is concerned enough about antibiotic resistance to suggest
significantly reducing the use of antibiotics in animals we eat .In this report
on global surveillance of this situation reveals that antibiotic resistance is
no longer a prediction for the future; it is happening right now, across the
world and is putting at risk the ability to treat common infections in the
community and hospitals. For example a regular cold could be become as one of
the most dangerous and deadly infection in the world and without urgent
coordinated action, the world is directed towards a post-antibiotic era, in
which common infections, which have been treatable for decades, can once again
kill.
Concern about the growing level of
antibiotic resistance has led to the banning of sub-therapeutic use of
antibiotics in meat animals in many countries in the European Union and Canada.
In the United States, however, such use is still legal. If this problem is controlled
antibiotic resistance will be remarkably reduced. The government should pay
greater attention to the amount of cases and statistics of the high numbers of
hospitalization and deaths caused by antibiotics resistance. This is the result
from farmer’s excess use of medicine in animals.
Works Cited
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 14 May 2014. Web. 18 May 2014.
"Defra." Defra. Web. 19 May 2014.
"Philosophical
Research Society -." Philosophical
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"Sixty-seventh
World Health Assembly Opens in Geneva." WHO. Web. 19 May 2014.
"U.S. Department
of Agriculture." U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Web. 19 May 2014.
"WebMD - Better
Information. Better Health." WebMD.
WebMD. Web. 17 May 2014.
