Superbugs and Factory Farms: The next pandemic is already here
A meat consumption continues to reach record highs, antibiotic resistance presents a threat. With factory farming on the rise around the world, untreatable superbugs could usher in the next global pandemic.
JENNIFER MISHLER: A new study published in The Lancet concludes that in 2019, the deaths of 1.2 million people were the direct result of antibiotic-resistant infections. The researchers, who analyzed data from over 200 countries, also found these untreatable illnesses were indirectly tied to the deaths of as many as 5 million people.
And these numbers are not the only alarming news regarding antibiotic resistance (AR) to come out in recent weeks. Not long after the new year began, an AR gene was detected in U.S. sewage water for the first time. The gene is resistant to colistin, a medication that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls a “crucial last-resort option,” increasingly used to treat patients infected with bacteria resistant to multiple drugs…
Approximately 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year, according to the CDC, resulting in the deaths of more than 35,000 people. Despite these climbing numbers, the routine use and abuse of antibiotics on factory farms continue, allowing meat producers to boost their revenues while putting the public at risk.
While colistin is not among the antimicrobials approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for use in farmed animals, it is used in animal agriculture in other countries. In the U.S., more than 120 antimicrobials considered medically important for humans were approved for use in livestock and “actively marketed” to farmers in 2020, according to the federal agency…
Factory farms create an environment in which disease can quickly and easily spread. At times, tens of thousands of animals are crowded into filthy and windowless sheds. In an attempt to prevent illness in the animals–and to maximize their growth and, therefore, the farmers’ profits–farmed animals are given antibiotics. But this, too, can create a health hazard…
When antibiotics are overused, animals can harbor bacteria resistant to these drugs, which in turn can contaminate the meat we consume. Drug-resistant bacteria are also found in the water and soil of communities surrounding factory farms.
Many experts fear that the threat of AR is rising, and drugs that are used in the U.S. meat industry and beyond could also present a risk to public health, creating increasingly difficult to treat bacteria known as “superbugs”… And it’s not just in the U.S., where meat consumption continues to reach record highs, that AR presents a threat. With factory farming on the rise around the world, untreatable superbugs could usher in the next global pandemic.
A recent investigation led by animal advocacy nonprofit World Animal Protection found antibiotic-resistant genes in waterways surrounding factory farms in the U.S., Canada, Thailand, and Spain. The organization, which believes these genes came from pig waste, claims that “the superbug crisis poses a threat that could eclipse the COVID-19 pandemic”… Another recent study estimated that, by 2050, superbugs could kill as many as 10 million people every year. Despite this apparent danger, the vast majority–nearly 80 percent–of antibiotics in the U.S. are given to farmed animals…
On November 21, 2021, Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical advisor of the UK Health Security called AR a “hidden pandemic,” warning “we do not come out of COVID-19 and enter into another crisis.” The previous year, a staggering one in five people in the UK who suffered from an infection had one resistant to antibiotics, according to the agency.
One reason AR could bring about a pandemic worse than the one we are currently facing in COVID-19 is the fact that not just one but many different drug-resistant strains could arise with absolutely no warning, leaving our healthcare system to face many untreatable conditions…
The growing scientific evidence that AR poses a serious public health risk has not yet led the meat industry to take meaningful action to reduce its use of antibiotics. The FDA states that as part of its efforts to address AR, it aims to optimize the use of antibiotics and limit “their use in animals to only when necessary to treat, control, or prevent disease.” But it’s worth pointing out again that the FDA itself says it does not have specific data on the usage of these drugs in farmed animals.
A ban in the European Union, which goes into effect later this month, prohibits the preventative use of antibiotics in farmed animals. Other countries will need to follow suit to affect any meaningful progress in the fight against AR, a public health crisis that has silently born down on us during the worst pandemic in recent memory and will no doubt continue long after. SOURCE…
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