Dear Editor,
It was worrying to read the Sarah Boseley's recent article, "Antibiotics lose their power to heal" (link below), on increases in drug-resistant bacteria (e.g. MRSA) and the resurgence of often lethal, pre-penicillin diseases. However, I notice that the issue of feeding antibiotics to animals is only touched on briefly and industrial-scale farming not mentioned at all.
I am currently reading Philip Lymbery's book "Farmageddon" and, in the chapter "Penicillin for Pigs", stumbled upon this quote made by Dr Barnett Stross, MP for Stoke-on-Trent, during a debate on the 1953 "Therapeutic Substances Bill" ...
"We are really treading into strange country. If pigs are fed in this way, new types of bacteria may evolve and thrive which are resistant to the penicillin, which the pigs are eating regularly in the food ... Should that arise, it would mean first that we should lose the benefits that we are now about to gain ... if there be migration of the bacteria to humans we may find ourselves in trouble. I do not wish to frighten anybody, but these are matters we may look at."
Mr Lymbery then goes on to mention that "80% of antibiotics use in America is on farms, 70% of the total to boost growth or prevent disease rather than to treat it." (page 139). In the EU the use of antibiotics to promote growth is banned although this rule can be easily circumnavigated by feeding antibiotics in order to "prevent disease".
So with this being the case, why do we not hear much more about the issue of routine feeding of antibiotics to animals? This point seems to only ever be mentioned in passing with far more emphasis being given to pharmaceutical companies needing "financial support" in order to create new, "more powerful" drugs.
Surely, alongside increased hospital hygiene and more restrained/controlled prescription to humans, is it not essential that we legislate that animals only ever receive antibiotics in order to treat a diagnosed illness? Preferably under the supervision of a vet. Routine feeding of these drugs to animals is shear madness ... as Dr Stross identified in 1953!
Yes, we seem to be brushing this point under the carpet and my suspicion is that the meat industry and the pharmaceutical lobby (rather than governments and public health interests) are calling the shots.
Regards
