California Farmer | Dec. 2001 | Len Richardson, Editor
Human resistance to antibiotics is now a biosecurity issue and animal agriculture's continued overuse not only gives ag a black eye, but also jeopardizes needed therapeutic use in the treatment of both human and animal disease.
This is the issue we warned you about in August 2001 (Editorially Speaking, page 6). The chickens have come home to roost because Cipro, the drug being used to treat the people exposed to anthrax is similar to Baytril another fluoroquinolone that is widely used on poultry and turkey farms.
There are now thousands of people who have been put on 60-day courses of treatment with Cipro. This unusually aggressive treatment will surely accelerate the emergence of a range of human pathogens with resistance to fluoroquinolones. Some doctors are predicting that more people will die from infections that become untreatable because of Cipro-triggered resistance than would die from anthrax. This warning is sure to stir debate, educating the public about how, when and where antibiotics are used.
One manufacturer, Bayer Corporation, makes both Baytril and Cipro drugs. Naturally, Americans targeted with anthrax are grateful for the efforts by Bayer to assure adequate supplies of Cipro, but attitudes will change if Cipro resistant bacteria start killing people, especially if resistance in the lethal bugs is traced to the farm, a real possibility.
Concerns over resistance go beyond poultry and having antibiotics available to combat biosecurity infractions. An editorial in the powerful New England Journal of Medicine quoted studies showing, "that 20% of samples of ground meat obtained in supermarkets were contaminated with salmonella and that 84% of the isolates were resistant to at least one antimicrobial.2." The editorial goes on to conclude that these findings "along with the abundant supporting evidence provided by previous studies, present the proverbial 'smoking gun.'"
"An estimated 70% of all antimicrobials in the U.S. are fed to healthy pigs, poultry and beef cattle," asserts Margaret Mellon, a scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. The American Medical Association has joined California doctors in opposing the use of antibiotics fed to healthy farm animals.
So that doctors don't come up empty handed in a biosecurity breach and to halt the spread of antimicrobial resistance, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed to ban the use of Baytril in poultry feed earlier this year. But Bayer has refused to comply even though Abbott Labs quickly agreed to stop selling its Cipro related drug.
Again we call on producers and vets to stop overuse of all antibiotics, while urging suppliers to pull Baytril.
California's livestock industry is traditionally proactive, the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program being a leading example. Livestock groups should develop and fund an antibiotic certification, education and use program in alliance with California medical groups, veterinarians and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Antibiotic-resistance is a wake-up call that ag must answer.California Farmer:
