A constructive letter reminding the Danish
politicians of their responsibilities for controlling antibiotic use in the pig
industry.
Obviously, the same kind of protest is now developing in
Britain. It is very slow, bearing in mind the much more serious situation in
the UK.
The politicians have to put the over-powerful British veterinary
organisations, their PR and lobbying, under tight emergency supervision
immediately and insist that the state veterinarians start carrying out their
duties properly, without fear or favour. Their habit of creating, covering-up and later justifying zoonotic disease disasters cannot be allowed to continue.
Freezing some drug dealing bank accounts would work wonders!
lETTERS TO THE
EDITOR 02.08.2014 KL. 03:00
MRSA bacteria are only the Advance
OF HANS JØRGEN
NYGAARD, FARMER, CHAIRMAN INDEPENDENT FARMERS - LIVE COUNTRY | OLE FÆRGEMAN,
PROFESSOR, MD., VICE FREE FARMERS - LIVE COUNTRY
We must content ourselves with MRSA bacteria in the
Danish pig herds.According to the Food Minister, it is too difficult and too
expensive to get rid of them. It would cost the Treasury 3.5
billion. £
The damage is done, he says, and then he explains
neither why it is the Treasury to pay or why he only looks at costs, not on the
savings to healthcare mm, which is part of the Norwegian study that his
ministry is based its calculation on.
The damage is only partially done. MRSA
bacteria are only advance party. Other bacteria will follow, and some of
them will certainly be more dangerous than MRSA CC398, which is the type of
MRSA found in pigs.
So far, MRSA CC398 caused four deaths in
Denmark. As long as the authorities allow pig farmers to use antibiotics
to the extent that they do, they will cultivate bacteria that are resistant to
antibiotics.
People multiply by 25-year intervals, while
bacteria can multiply by 20 minutes. Every time they do, there is a
possibility that the resulting bacteria better to cause disease and / or resist
antibiotics.
In 2012, Danish doctors used 49 tons of antibiotics
in humans. It's too much, and doctors should be much more reluctant to
write prescriptions for antibiotics, but in that year we spent in Denmark 86
tons of antibiotics to pigs. It was even 4 tonnes more than in 2011.
Antibiotics have been developed for the treatment
of sick people, but doctors and especially veterinarians and farmers use them
to an extent that creates resistant bacteria that cause infectious diseases in
humans, we can not treat.
Clinicians should be far more critical in their use
of antibiotics, but the key is to stop the routine use of antibiotics in pig
production. There are better ways to produce pork, and so by the Minister
for Food.
The minister's job is on our behalf to regulate agriculture,
including large pig factories. Pork exports account for less than 5 per
cent. of Danish exports.
There's nothing to be afraid of. Apart from
MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria, we know will come.
