.
This report, taken in tandem with the recent news from the USA about the range of antibiotic resistance in Canadian and US chicken on the supermarket shelves - see Maryn McKenna’s blog here, is pretty important.
The publisher is Reed, ( as is “Farmers Weekly” and “Pig Progress” ) so it is mainstream.
As you can see for pretty much the first time VETS ARE BLAMED, and for the right reasons – they in turn blame the farmers.
This is all pretty inevitable and predictable, but nothing to exonerate the vets. They wrote the script and made money from doing so: they carry the can.
Perhaps they will learn something real business people have known for generations: you have to stand behind your signature.
Blaming others is no excuse against your signature on a signed document yielding you a profit. Veterinarians are supposed to be educated, in Britain usually at the taxpayer’s expense.
British vets, not least government vets, have been signing anything that suits their interests to the exclusion of the truth, farming interest or the interests of public health.
That now has to stop and those doing it have to be investigated, prosecuted where appropriate, and removed.
Blaming the farmer won’t wash in court, every business comes under pressure from customers to do things they should not. You simply say “no.”
Antibiotic resistance in humans is getting worse. Veterinarians everywhere have to be stopped from irresponsible prescribing.
Full reprort from All About Feed, here
Extracts:
“Chickens are risk to human health”
21 Feb 2011
New evidence from Dutch research indicates that eating chicken can cause resistance to antibiotics in human.
Patient suffering from serious urinal or bloodstream infections - caused by so-called ESBL-bacteria or ‘superbugs’ - cannot be cured with the most important antibiotics.
In one in five patients these ESBL-bacteria are genetically identical to the antibiotic resistance bacteria that have been found in chicken.
The findings suggest that the affected patients obtained the bacteria direct or indirectly from chicken. The research was published in the scientific journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection.
All chicken infected
Nearly all chicken in Dutch supermarkets and at poultry farms are infected with ESBL-bacteria...
...The scientists say that their findings not conclusively prove that chicken meat is the source of the infection, but it is a strong lead. Epidemical observations, however, show that in the past years antibiotic resistance in humans and in chicken increases proportionally...
...Roel Coutinho, director of the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, says the connection now is well demonstrated...
... use of antibiotics in the poultry sector must be strongly reduced,” he said...
...Veterinarians have an interest in prescribing antibiotics, because they are also pharmacists. Vets, however, claim that they are pressured by farmers to prescribe antibiotics. If they don’t the farmer hires another veterinarian who is more willingly...
