Killer Bugs in Our Pork

20May09

Op-Ed Columnist – Pathogens in Our Pork – NYTimes.com: “We don’t add antibiotics to baby food and Cocoa Puffs so that children get fewer ear infections. That’s because we understand that the overuse of antibiotics is already creating ‘superbugs’ resistant to medication.

Yet we continue to allow agribusiness companies to add antibiotics to animal feed so that piglets stay healthy and don’t get ear infections. Seventy percent of all antibiotics in the United States go to healthy livestock, according to a careful study by the Union of Concerned Scientists — and that’s one reason we’re seeing the rise of pathogens that defy antibiotics.”

(Via New York Times.)

Nicholas mentions several stunning facts…

1. 5 out of 90 samples of store bought pork had MRSA – an antibiotic resistant super bug.

2. 18,000 Americans die from superbugs (i.e. MRSA) – more than AIDS.

3. If you thought you could only get superbugs in hospitals – think again. It’s spreading all over the place. It’s hit high school or college athletes to tons of everyday people in small towns around hog farms.

4. Apparently 25-39% of all American pigs could be carrying the MRSA superbug which our drugs can’t kill.

So Why Do We Give Antibiotics to Healthy Animals?

Politics. Big farm businesses have stopped anyone from telling them not to use antibiotics. Now we’ve got diseases that our best medical weapons can’t beat simply because we’ve overused them for making “perfect pork”.

“That’s an almost universal view in the public health world. The Infectious Diseases Society of America has declared antibiotic resistance a “public health crisis” and recounts the story of Rebecca Lohsen, a 17-year-old New Jersey girl who died from MRSA in 2006. She came down with what she thought was a sore throat, endured months in the hospital, and finally died because the microbes were stronger than the drugs.”

It’s damned sad. People are dying because big farm businesses won’t stop and people keep demanding their pork by the droves. Think of the world’s growing appetite for meat like pork and beef.

At some point we’ll completely cross the line. Maybe swine flu was that crossing?

Special thanks to the insightful Vlad Skotar for bringing Nicholas’ articles to my attention. Nicholas Kristof has done a lot of work all over the world on social issue topics – these health pieces were new to me. Vlad’s got sharper eyes than me (that or he has more time to ream the NYTimes over morning coffee). SL

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Filed under: Agriculture, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Ethics, Food Safety, Health and Wellness   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: antibiotics, factory farming, hog farms, industrial agriculture, MRSA, pathogens, pathology, pig, pork, resistant, staph, swine flu, virology, viruses