Poultry farms say no to drugs
BIRDS' ANTIBIOTICS MAY UNDERCUT HUMAN HEALTH
By Lisa M. Krieger
Mercury News
Something will be missing from many Bay Area dinner tables this Thanksgiving: antibiotics.
An increasing number of major poultry producers and restaurant companies are backing away from once-routine use of the drugs to ward off illness or fatten up flocks.
The shift is a result of growing concern within the health and environmental communities that the frequent use of antibiotics in animals makes the drugs less effective in people.
``When we became aware of the antibiotic resistance issue, it seemed like a natural thing for us to take a stand on,'' said Maisie Ganzler of Bon Appetit, a Palo Alto-based food-service provider, which announced this week it is selling only antibiotic-free birds. The company serves 700,000 pounds of Foster Farms turkey a year in its 190 cafes in 26 states, including the dining rooms at Yahoo, Oracle, Cisco and Santa Clara University.
Changing a practice that is decades old, bird breeders are relying on vaccines, cleaner cages and isolation techniques to keep their birds healthy. One company is selectively breeding birds with extra-strong immune systems, able to fend off infectious microbes.
Last summer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the use of one agricultural antibiotic, a fluoroquinolone called Baytril, nearly identical to the human antibiotic Cipro. The FDA showed that the use of Baytril in poultry reduces the effectiveness of Cipro in treating a common cause of human food poisoning.
But seven other classes of antibiotics are still legal, including ones commonly prescribed by doctors such as penicillins, cephalosporins and tetracyclines.
Health authorities say they are not opposed to the use of antibiotics to treat sick animals. But they are concerned about the routine use of the drugs in healthy animals, to promote faster growth or prevent illness in livestock that live in overcrowded or unsanitary conditions.
Although the risks are uncertain, medical authorities believe that reducing overall use of antibiotics will prolong the effectiveness of these important medicines. Because bacteria commonly swap genes, scientists are concerned that drug resistance in animal microbes could cause resistance in human microbes.
In response, six of the top 20 poultry companies -- Foster Farms, Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, Gold Kist, ConAgra and Claxton -- have reduced or eliminated the routine use of antibiotics.
Major chicken purchasers such as McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Hardee's, Popeyes and Subway buy meat with reduced levels of antibiotics. Since 2003, they have asked their suppliers to not use antibiotics for growth promotion, if the drugs belong to a class of compounds approved for use in humans.
Groups such as Environmental Defense helped nudge farmers to change the way they do business. At the Livingston-based Foster Farms, poultry flocks are isolated from all other animals, especially wild birds and ducks. All equipment and vehicles entering the farms are cleaned and disinfected upon entry and exit. Sick flocks are euthanized and not used for human food. These practices reduce the exposure not only to routine germs, but also to deadly pathogens such as avian influenza.
The new poultry genetics company PureLine Genetics is taking a very different approach. A completely bacteria-free environment is not practical or affordable, said research scientist Harris Wright. So the Connecticut-based company is breeding a line of tough birds -- with immune systems so strong that they don't need antibiotics to stay healthy.
``We go through 5,000 birds a week, evaluating each one for its health and selecting the strongest ones,'' Wright said. ``We're re-creating the genetics that Mother Nature put in birds initially.''
In 1998, the European Union banned the non-therapeutic use of essential human antibiotics in poultry, cattle and hogs. The giant U.S. pig-farming company Smithfield Foods announced in August that it would reduce the number of antibiotics it feeds its animals.
A similar phase-out in other types of livestock is being urged by a coalition of consumer, environmental and health advocates called Keep Antibiotics Working. But a drug must be proven that it is unsafe before it can be pulled by the FDA.
Contact Lisa M. Krieger at lkrieger@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5565San Josew Mercury News
