Antibiotics in Meat
The problem of antibiotic and drug residues in animal products
Antibiotics are added to the water and feed of farmed animals in order to help them promote growth and use less food to gain weight. It is not very well understood how antibiotics actually promote animal growth, but the efficiency in increasing animal weight faster is an undisputed fact (1). According to the Public Broadcasting Service (2), daily administration of small doses of antibiotics makes most animals gain at least 3% extra weight. These small amounts of antibiotics are considered “sub-therapeutic” doses, which essentially means that they control and prevent infectious diseases with the added benefit of additional weight gain. This is common practice for cattle, hogs, poultry and other food-producing animals.
Producers do not publicize information regarding the amounts of antibiotics used, but it is estimated that “15–17 million pounds of antibiotics used sub-therapeutically in the United States each year” (2). Naturally, antibiotics are also given to animals which are sick. While this is a reasonable and humane practice, the sheer number of confined animals in the same space does not allow individual testing and treatment of animals. If one or a few infected animals are diagnosed, farmers treat every animal in proximity by adding the drug to the drinking water or feed. In this case, the whole herd receives much higher — therapeutic — amounts of antibiotics for a short period of time. Alternatively, some industrial farms have the policy to simply kill the sick animals, as it is more cost effective than treating them.
Apart from the toxicity of many of the commonly used antibiotics, both for the animals and the consumers, widespread antibiotic use also contributes significantly to the development of resistant pathogenic bacterial strains, which are a growing public health concern. Animals given too many antibiotics develop resistant bacteria in their gut, which spread and remain on the meat. For those who enjoy lightly cooked meat, the danger of getting infected directly from their food is very significant. Resistant bacteria can infect susceptible people in more ways. For example, fertilizer or water containing animal manure and drug resistant bacteria may be used in food crops, contaminating them. Animal products tainted with antibiotics can have a direct negative effect on the beneficial intestinal flora of the consumers as well contributing further to the problem of resistant bacterial strains. Antibiotics can destroy the bacterial balance in the gut whether they are taken as prescribed antibiotics following doctor’s advice or eating food that contains them. The latest report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (3) reports that “each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections”.
References
- FDA. 2013. Phasing Out Certain Antibiotic Use in Farm Animals. Available online at: http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm378100.htm
- PBS. 2013. Available online at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/safe/overview.html
- CDC. 2013. Threat Report 2013. Available online at: http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/threat-report-2013/
- van der Molen EJ. 1988. Pathological effects of carbadox in pigs with special emphasis on the adrenal. J Comp Pathol. 98(1):55–67. Abstract available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3346391
In collaboration with Eleni Roumeliotou, a clinical nutritionist, geneticist and founder of Primal Baby.
