FDA Fails to Protect Against Antibiotic Resistance, Guarantees More
Needless Death and Suffering
April 23, 2014
Story at-a-glance
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Antibiotic-resistant bacteria infect two million
Americans every year, causing at least 23,000 deaths
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Nearly 25 million pounds of antibiotics are administered
to US livestock every year for purposes other than
treating disease, such as making the animals grow bigger
faster
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The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control
(ECDC) ruled that antibiotic resistance is a major
threat to public health worldwide, and the primary cause
for this man-made epidemic is the widespread misuse of
antibiotics
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Measures to curb the rampant overuse of agricultural
antibiotics could have a major impact in the US, as
evidenced by actions taken in other countries.
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After Denmark implemented an antibiotic ban for its pork
industry, the country had drastically reduced
antibiotic-resistant bacteria in their animals and food
– and their pork industry grew by 43 percent
By Dr. Mercola
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria infect two million Americans every
year, causing at least 23,000 deaths. Even more die from
complications related to the infections, and the numbers are
steadily growing.
It's now clear that we are facing the perfect storm to take us
back to the pre-antibiotic age, when some of the most important
advances in modern medicine – intensive care, organ transplants,
care for premature babies, surgeries and even treatment for many
common bacterial infections – will no longer be possible.
Experts have been warning about the implications of antibiotic
resistance for years, but it's time to face the facts. Many strains
of bacteria are becoming resistant to even our strongest antibiotics
and are causing deadly infections.
The bacteria are capable of evolving much faster than we are.
Secondly, drug companies have all but abandoned the development of
new antibiotics because of their poor profit margins.
Antibiotic Resistance: How Did This Happen?
Antibiotic overuse and inappropriate use – such as taking
antibiotics to treat viral infections -- bears a heavy
responsibility for creating the antibiotic-resistant superbug crisis
we are facing today.
According to Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, associate director of the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as much as half of
all antibiotics used in clinics and hospitals "are either unneeded
or patients are getting the wrong drugs to treat their infections."1
There's more to the story than this, however, as antibiotic
overuse occurs not just in medicine, but also in food production. In
fact, agricultural usage accounts for about 80 percent of
all antibiotic use in the US,2
so it's a MAJOR source of human antibiotic consumption.
Nearly
25 million pounds of antibiotics are administered to livestock
in the US every year for purposes other than treating disease,
such as making the animals grow bigger faster.
In other parts of the world, such as the EU, adding antibiotics
to animal feed to accelerate growth has been banned for years. The
antibiotic residues in meat and dairy, as well as the resistant
bacteria, are passed on to you in the foods you eat.
Eighty different antibiotics are allowed in cows'
milk. According to the CDC, 22 percent of antibiotic-resistant
illness in humans is in fact linked to food.3
In the words of Dr. Srinivasan:
"The more you use an antibiotic, the more you expose a
bacteria to an antibiotic, the greater the likelihood that
resistance to that antibiotic is going to develop. So the more
antibiotics we put into people, we put into the environment, we
put into livestock, the more opportunities we create for these
bacteria to become resistant."
This is a much bigger issue than antibiotics simply being left
behind in your meat. For instance, bacteria often share genes that
make them resistant. In other words, the drug-resistant bacteria
that contaminates your meat may pass on their resistant genes to
other bacteria in your body, making you more likely to become sick.
Drug-resistant bacteria also accumulate in manure that is spread
on fields and enters waterways, allowing the drug-resistant bacteria
to spread far and wide and ultimately back up the food chain to us.
You can see how easily antibiotic resistance spreads, via the food
you eat and community contact, in the CDC's infographic below.
Source: CDC.gov, Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the
United States, 2013
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One-Third of the Most Dangerous Resistant Pathogens Are Found in
Your Food
According to the CDC's report, there are 12 resistant pathogens
that pose a "serious" threat to public health. One-third of them are
found in food. The four drug-resistant pathogens in question are:
- Campylobacter, which causes an estimated 310,000 infections
and 28 deaths per year
- Salmonella, responsible for another 100,000 infections and
38 deaths annually
- E. coli
- Shigella
Previous research suggested you have a 50/50 chance of buying
meat tainted with drug-resistant bacteria when you buy meat from
your local grocery store.4
But it may be even worse. Using data collected by the federal agency
called NARMS (National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System),
the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found antibiotic-resistant
bacteria in 81 percent of ground turkey, 69 percent of pork chops,
55 percent of ground beef, and 39 percent of raw chicken parts
purchased in stores in 2011. EWG nutritionist and the report's lead
researcher, Dawn Undurraga, issued the following warning to the
public:5
"Consumers should be very concerned that
antibiotic-resistant bacteria are now common in the meat aisles
of most American supermarkets... These organisms can cause
foodborne illnesses and other infections. Worse, they spread
antibiotic-resistance, which threatens to bring on a
post-antibiotic era where important medicines critical to
treating people could become ineffective."
What Happens When a Country Takes Its Livestock Off Antibiotics?
In the US, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are
hotbeds for breeding antibiotic-resistant bacteria because of the
continuous feeding of low doses of antibiotics to the
animals, who become living bioreactors for pathogens to survive,
adapt, and eventually, thrive. The European Centre for Disease
Prevention and Control (ECDC) ruled that antibiotic resistance is a
major threat to public health, worldwide, and the primary cause for
this man-made epidemic is the widespread misuse of antibiotics.6
Measures to curb the rampant overuse of agricultural antibiotics
could have a major impact in the US, as evidenced by actions taken
in other countries. For example,
Denmark stopped the widespread use of antibiotics in their pork
industry 14 years ago. The European Union has also banned
the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed over concerns of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
After Denmark implemented the antibiotic ban, it was later
confirmed the country had drastically reduced antibiotic-resistant
bacteria in their animals and food. Furthermore, the Danish
'experiment' proved that removing antibiotics doesn't have to hurt
the industry's bottom line. In the first 12 years of the ban, the
Danish pork industry grew by 43 percent -- making it one of
the top exporters of pork in the world. As reported by Consumer
Reports:7
"What happens when a country takes its livestock off
antibiotics? In 2000 Denmark's pork industry ceased using
antibiotics to promote the growth of its animals. Instead of
eviscerating the nation's pork industry, those moves contributed
to a 50 percent rise in pork production, according to a 2012
article in the journal Nature.8
Frank Aarestrup, D.V.M., Ph.D., head of the EU Reference
Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance and author of the
article, attributes Denmark's success to three factors: laws
banning the improper use of antibiotics, a robust system of
surveillance and enforcement, and rules that prevent
veterinarians from profiting from selling antibiotics to
farmers. 'Farmers and their livestock can thrive
without the heavy use of antibiotics,' Aarestrup wrote. 'With a
little effort, I believe that other countries can and must help
their farmers to do the same.'"
What's Standing in the Way of Curbing Antibiotic Use in the US?
In a word, industry. For instance, the American Pork Industry
doesn't want to curb antibiotic use, as this would mean
raising the cost of producing pork by an estimated $5 for every
100 pounds of pork brought to market. The pharmaceutical industry is
obviously against it as well. Even though they're not keen on
producing new antibiotics to bring to the market, they want to
protect those that are already here – especially those incredibly
lucrative varieties that are used perpetually in animal feed. Even
Dr. Aarestrup, who helped Denmark cut the use of antibiotics in
livestock by 60 percent, wrote about the intense industry pressures
he faced:9
"Reducing Denmark's reliance on antibiotics was far from
easy. My lab was visited by pharmaceutical executives who did
not like what we were finding, and I would be cornered at
meetings by people who disagreed with our conclusions. I have
even been publicly accused of being paid to produce biased
results. Despite such challenges, it has been satisfying to see
that Danish farmers and their livestock can thrive without the
heavy use of antibiotics. …The practice continues unabated in
the United States, despite a statement from the Food and Drug
Administration [FDA]… suggesting that farmers should stop
voluntarily."
FDA Again Fails to Take Appropriate Action on Agricultural
Antibiotics
The FDA issued its long-awaited guidance on agricultural
antibiotics on December 11, 2013.10
Unfortunately, it's unlikely to have a major impact in terms of
protecting your health. The agency is simply asking drug companies
to voluntarily restrict the use of antibiotics that are
important in human medicine by excluding growth promotion in animals
as a listed use on the drug label.11
This would prevent farmers from legally using antibiotics such as
tetracyclines, penicillins, and azithromycin for growth promotion
purposes. But it certainly does not go far enough to protect public
health. The guidance contains far too many loopholes for any
meaningful protection.
For example, farmers would still be allowed to use antibiotics
for therapeutic purposes, which would allow them to continue feeding
their animals antibiotics for growth promotion without actually
admitting that's the reason for doing so. As reported by
Scientific American:12
"[T]he success of the FDA's new program depends on how
many companies volunteer to change their labels over the next 90
days in alignment with the FDA cutoff period. (Companies that do
change their labels will have three years to phase in the
changes.) And then there are myriad questions about how this
would be enforced on the farm."
In short, while giving the superficial appearance of taking
warranted action to protect public health, the reality is that
they're simply shills for the industry. Michael Taylor,13
FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine, and
former VP for public policy at Monsanto, is again
responsible for caving in to industry at the expense of human lives.
Why Did FDA Ignore Risk Factors from the Very Beginning?
According to a recent report14
from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the FDA has known
that using antibiotics in factory farms is harmful to human health
for over a dozen years, yet it took no action to curb its use. And
now, all they're doing is asking drug companies, who make massive
amounts of money from these products, to voluntary restrict
their use.
The report also found that 26 of the 30 drugs reviewed by the FDA
did not meet safety guidelines issued in 1973, and NONE of the 30
drugs would meet today's safety guidelines... As reported by
Rodale Magazine,15
the FDA is supposed to look at three factors when determining the
safety of an antibiotic-based feed additive. Based on the three
factors listed below, the NRDC's report16
concluded that virtually ALL feed additives containing penicillin
and tetracycline antibiotics—both of which are used to treat human
disease—pose a "high risk" to human health, and should not be
permitted:
- The chances that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are being
introduced into the food supply
- The likelihood that people would get exposed to those
bacteria
- The consequences of what happens when people are exposed to
those bacteria—would they still be able to get treated with
human antibiotics?
Looking on the Brighter Side
The impending superbug crisis has a three-prong solution:
- Better infection prevention, with a focus on strengthening
your immune system naturally
- More responsible use of antibiotics for people and animals,
with a return to biodynamic farming and a complete overhaul of
our food system
- Innovative new approaches to the treatment of infections
from all branches of science, natural as well as allopathic
There are some promising new avenues of study that may result in
fresh ways to fight superbugs. For example, Dutch scientists have
discovered a way to deactivate antibiotics with a blast of
ultraviolet light before bacteria have a chance to adapt, and before
the antibiotics can damage your good bacteria.17
And British scientists have discovered how bacteria talk to each
other through "quorum signaling" and are investigating ways of
disrupting this process in order to render them incapable of causing
an infection. They believe this may lead to a new line of
anti-infectives that do not kill bacteria, but instead block their
ability to cause disease.18
But the basic strategy that you have at your disposal right now is
prevention, prevention, prevention—it's much easier to prevent an
infection than to halt one already in progress.
Natural compounds with antimicrobial activity such as
garlic,
cinnamon,
oregano extract,
colloidal silver,
Manuka honey, probiotics and
fermented foods,
echinacea, sunlight and
vitamin D are all excellent options to try before resorting to
drugs. Best of all, research has shown that bacteria do not tend to
develop resistance to these types of treatments. The basic key to
keeping your immune system healthy is making good lifestyle choices
such as proper
diet,
stress management and exercise.
You Can Take Action to Help Save Antibiotics from Extinction
Avoiding antibiotic-resistance is but one of several good reasons
to avoid meats and animal products from animals raised in
concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). This is in part why
grass-fed pastured meat is the only type of meat I recommend. If
you're regularly eating meat bought at your local grocery store,
know that you're in all likelihood getting exposed to
antibiotic-resistant bacteria and a low dose of antibiotics with
every meal... and this low-dose exposure is what's allowing bacteria
to adapt and develop such strong resistance.
The FDA's stance toward antibiotics in livestock feed is
unconscionable in light of the harm it wreaks, and its weakness
makes being proactive on a personal level all the more important.
Quite simply, the FDA has been, and still is, supporting the
profitability of large-scale factory farming at the expense of
public health.
You can help yourself and your community by using antibiotics
only when absolutely necessary and by purchasing organic,
antibiotic-free meats and other foods from local farmers – not
CAFOs. Even though the problem of antibiotic resistance needs to be
stemmed through public policy on a nationwide level, the more people
who get involved on a personal level to stop unnecessary antibiotic
use the better. You can help on a larger scale, too, by telling the
FDA we need a mandatory ban on sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics
for livestock—not weak, voluntary guidance.
FDA Deputy Commissioner and ex-Monsanto attorney Michael Taylor
will leave quite a legacy behind. He's not only served Monsanto and
the other pesticide producers quite well, he seems to carry the same
sentiment over to the antiobiotic crisis. The FDA claims that a
voluntary guideline "is the most efficient and effective way to
change the use of these products in animal agriculture." It would
appear that Taylor's concern for human health takes a very distant
back seat to industry profits...
To make your voice heard, please sign the
Organic Consumer's Association's petition, calling for a
mandatory ban on sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics for livestock.
Copyright 1997- 2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/23/agricultural-antibiotic-overuse.aspx
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