DailyDirt: Antibiotic Abuse In The Food Industry

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, May 3rd 2013 5:00pm — Joyce Hung

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been trying to get the meat industry to reduce its use of antibiotics, even proposing a set of voluntary guidelines in 2012, but it hasn't done much with it since. In the meantime, antibiotic (ab)use on livestock farms continues to grow. According to data from the FDA, the livestock industry now uses almost 80% of all the antibiotics used in the U.S. The main concern is that the practice of dosing healthy farm animals daily with antibiotics will create drug-resistant bacteria. About three-quarters of Salmonella found on ground turkey and chicken breast are now resistant to at least one antibiotic, and almost half of the Campylobacter found on chicken products are resistant to tetracyclines. Here are some other examples of antibiotic abuse in the food industry.

Researchers have found 149 different drug-resistant genes in bacteria on antibiotic-intensive pig farms in China. These antibiotic-resistant genes can spread to the environment and end up in many different kinds of human pathogens. [url]
Did you know that organic apple and pear orchards are treated with tetracycline to prevent a disease called fire blight? While this may be surprising, tetracycline has actually been allowed for use in organic farming in the U.S. since the mid-'90s (with the understanding that their use would eventually be phased out). Fire blight has already become resistant to streptomycin -- how long will it be before tetracycline stops working, too? [url]
If you use logic "borrowed from the anti-GMO crowd," you could argue that antibiotic abuse in the meat industry causes autism and diabetes... because both antibiotic use and the number of autistic children and diabetics have been increasing over the years. Right? Right?? [url]

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Filed Under: antibiotics, autism, farming, food, gmo, meat, organic, pathogens, tetracycline

16 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 3 May 2013 @ 5:17pm

The only really dangerous thing about antibiotics is in dairy....never use dairy products while on them....you can clear a room PDQ.
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Wally (profile), 3 May 2013 @ 6:20pm

"If you use logic "borrowed from the anti-GMO crowd," you could argue that antibiotic abuse in the meat industry causes autism and diabetes... because both antibiotic use and the number of autistic children and diabetics have been increasing over the years. Right? Right??"

I love how that article psychlogically throws the anti-GMO crowd its own medicine ;-) It saddens me to think that people are coming up with excuses to give a very real, very uncurable/untreatable, very hereditary neurological disorders to drive their own beliefs. It only labels those of us in the Autism Spectrum (like my Brother, my Wife, and myself) as people who are terrible, dumb, and genrerally outright unable to function as human beings. Because of this labeling from the Anti-GMO logic towards my, my brother's,a and my wife's disorders makes no sense to us, and trust me, we think analytically, I can conclude that they are actually severely retarded. They need to be in a psych ward and lay off the Koolaid for a bit...or better yet, they need a good drink of Jim Jones' special grape flavored Koolaid thus doing the rest of the world a favor.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 May 2013 @ 6:40pm

Cheaper to drug than to clean up
US food system is broken. Not news. Shut up and eat.

https://www.consumerreports.org/turkey0613

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2012 /10/25/why-american-eggs-would-be-illegal-in-a-british-supermarket-and-vice-versa/
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artp (profile), 3 May 2013 @ 7:02pm

That can't be true, can it?
Farm Bureau says that antibiotic use does not affect any human diseases, so no worries. It's just more of that radical hippie environmental anti-meat nonsense.

I wish I could get insurance somewhere else besides Farm Bureau. [Card-carrying Farm Bureau member who doesn't agree with much besides their insurance rates.]
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Wally (profile), 3 May 2013 @ 7:23pm

Re: Cheaper to drug than to clean up
In regard to that second link...ever hear of mad cow's disease? The same country that contracted (and ignored) the most cases of BSE doesn't allow eggs to be decontaminated...OK here is the thing...chickens can contract STD's. Most STD's are spread in liquids...and there are a few of the avian variety that can live dried up in UV. On the way out from the hen, the egg is surrounded by a liquid coating that dries up...guess what happens if you bring the egg home and wash it yourself like you would in the EU...FDA regulations chemically treats eggs to, you guessed it, prevent STD's from spreading. This also accounts for certain temperatures being applied as well...oh and as for that theory the EU has on a porous egg...they seem to forget that there is an air sack in that thing and that the average chicken egg is not permeable to any human safe chemicals used to decontaminate them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy
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Wally (profile), 3 May 2013 @ 7:28pm

Re: That can't be true, can it?
"Farm Bureau says that antibiotic use does not affect any human diseases,"

Antibiotics help to combat diseases naturally as long as the animal is alive.....antibodies die when they die....they cannot magically be reused or come back to life...so unless it is some sort of nuclear antibiotic...we cannot be affected by them.

On a side note with some personal experiences concerning the mix of dairy products and antibiotics...I think there might be an unconvetnional reason why cow flatulence smells so bad....
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DMNTD, 3 May 2013 @ 7:38pm

Eat it if you want it.
Quit acting like it's "non" problem,and treating people who don't want to change somehting that was working well before money and corps saw a chance to profit. Seriously, I Don't "want" GMO's in or around my food, stop saying we have to accept it. FFS, just as bad as trolls about wi-fi and people who don't want wi-fi in and around their home etc. Let it go. If you want it so bad go fucking eat or buy it for yourself.

Oh wait, that reminds of of second hand smoke, it's offensive and NOT required for anyone's existence, but go ahead and try and convince us it's "ok" even though it effects everything negatively.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2013 @ 1:13am

Re: Eat it if you want it.
"Quit acting like it's "non" problem,and treating people who don't want to change somehting that was working well before money and corps saw a chance to profit. Seriously, I Don't "want" GMO's in or around my food, stop saying we have to accept it."

But the science used by your type is not based at all in reality....the major supporters and pervayors of your crowd tried to use inheritable neurological disorders (mainly by claiming that GMO's have been shown to cause Autism), with no scientific baring what so ever in the process other than the fact that they used to different statistics to get the results they want to justify their claims.

I'm sorry, but when your people push their political agendas down other people's throats using Autism...it makes them not only the biggest douche bags around, but it also makes them look even more dumb and desperate to have their way in the world. I have a news flash for you...autism is not at all caused by the food you eat....it's a hereditary neurological disorder and is a recessive gene....you are born with it and the cause is not what the mommy eats...the cause is a recessive gene that causes the brain to be wired differently.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2013 @ 6:26am

Re: Re: Cheaper to drug than to clean up
Wally, nobody washes their fucking eggs. If you want to get all evidence-based-bullshit, compare the salmonella rates and get back to us.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2013 @ 7:04am

Re:
1) Come up with some crazy conspiracy theory with an obviously bad rational for arguing against your whatever
2) Spread the news about how lame this argument is
3) .....
4) Backlash
5) Profit
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Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2013 @ 7:08am

Re: Re: Eat it if you want it.
"the science used by your type"

Stereotypes are funny
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Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2013 @ 7:09am

So ... overuse of antibiotics does not lead to resistant bacteria?
Got it.
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ChrisH, 4 May 2013 @ 8:31am

Re: Eat it if you want it.
+1

Also, while there is much awareness of growing and raising issues, the processing still gets overlooked. For someone with food allergies , there's a big difference between vegetables from a farmers market and a supermarket like Whole Foods. Even if it's organic, the supermarket has washed its produce with citric acid to improve shelf life. That acid is almost certainly GMO and won't show up on any ingredient lists because items used in processing "don't count" according to regulations. At most USDA certified processors, meat (organic or not) is sprayed with lactic acid to kill bacteria (called an intervention). So good luck if you happen to be allergic to any of those ingredients (citric and lactic acid are made from corn). Luckily there's few small USDA processors which use a hot water rinse instead of acid but you need to ask around. Most of the times, even the those selling at a farmers market are unaware of how their meat is processed.
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ChrisH, 4 May 2013 @ 8:44am

Re: Re: Eat it if you want it.
This sounds a little bit like a straw man to me. I've heard plenty of people talk about issues with GMO but none of them have mentioned Autism. Unfortunately, nutritional science is not a very well understood field.
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Anonymous, 4 May 2013 @ 2:08pm

Re: Re: Cheaper to drug than to clean up
Maybe you should quit screwing chickens, Wally.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 2:57am

Re: Re: That can't be true, can it?
um, antibiotics aren't alive in the first place. Yes, they can be passed to humans, it's why milk from a cow that has had antibiotics has to be discarded for a while after the cow has taken the antibiotic. But that isn't the issue. some bovine diseases can also affect humans (BSE, foot-and-mouth) and if cows are routinely given antibiotics, then those diseases can then become resistant to the antibiotics used in humans.
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