Feed Lot Magazine Online, The Real Antibiotics Issue, Part III The Most At Risk

In the last issue we discussed how the antibiotics issue is based on a flawed theory. Most practitioners in the medical profession are taught and otherwise believe that the "responsible" way to use antibiotics is in high level "therapeutic" doses. Low level use, as is commonly used in animal agriculture is considered to be the cause of antibiotic resistance.

As we also discussed last time, the reality is that high level therapeutic use is actually much more prone to cause resistance. The reality is that we have used low-level antibiotics for 50 years. When a new human antibiotic comes on the market it is effective. It is only after overuse in humans (at therapeutic levels) that resistance begins to occur. The ultimate reality is that the medical community creates resistance through over-use in humans, but prefers to blame animal agriculture.

Those Most at Risk

The image given to those of us in animal agriculture is that we are greedy, uncaring individuals who are willing to put the public at risk for the sake of our own bottom line. That, of course, is blatantly untrue. To begin with, the public should realize that within the cattle industry, a great many producers have called for voluntary bans on low-level antibiotic use. But beyond that, it should be realized it is you and I, and not the public, who are most at risk. That is, those of us who handle and work with animals and are in contact with manure on a daily basis have the most to fear from resistant animal bacteria. This is something the press has completely failed to tell the public.

But how many of you have suffered resistant antibiotic infections? Speaking at a recent cattleman's convention, I asked that question. The answer was zero. It was zero for two reasons. To begin with, resistance to human antibiotics does not occur because of animal antibiotics used in animals.

The other factor the press has withheld from the public is that the types of bacteria found in animals that are capable of causing disease in humans are usually transmitted through the consumption of raw meat or unpasteurized milk. That is, with or without resistance there are some very potent bacteria in animal food products that can cause disease. With the exception of E. coil 0157:H7, these bacteria are easily destroyed by cooking. (E. coli 0157:H7 has not been found to have resistance and is therefore not germane to the resistance issue.)

Several years ago a great deal of publicity was given to a series of food poisonings related to resistant Salmonella. The press focused on the resistance issue, blaming animal agriculture. It was never proved the resistance occurred at the farm, but it was not discussed (in the popular press) that those involved acquired the infection from eating raw hamburger. We will discuss the Salmonella and the food poisoning issue in depth next time, but for the moment it should be pointed out that on a per capita basis Great Britain has a higher incidence rate than the U.S. -- yet low level antibiotic use has been banned for over 30 years.

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