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Farm animals, antimicrobials and superbugs - the case in favour of a plant diet
Posted by:
Jose
()
Date: November 07, 2007 06:33PM When the environmental and moral arguments don't seem to be getting through, this is yet another scientific argument to convince someone that animal products aren't very good for us.
The antibiotics fed to the farm animals we eat may have helped to create superbugs like the drug-resistant staph bacteria known as MRSA. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA -- or, in the parlance of New York tabloids, "super staph" -- is an antibiotic-resistant version of one of the bacteria collectively known as staph. Staph, which can cause everything from skin infections to more life-threatening diseases, usually attacks older hospital patients who develop infections after surgery. The newer, often more virulent strains collectively known as CA-MRSA (community-acquired MRSA) have been all over the news in the past few weeks, as they affect people younger and healthier than the usual targets. A recent study suggested that MRSA infection was responsible for almost 19,000 deaths in the United States last year -- more than AIDS -- including the very public deaths of children and adolescents in Virginia, New York and elsewhere. Public health officials have tried to quiet fears, but the problem could get worse. MRSA remains treatable with a number of different antibiotics, but there are already signs that resistance to some of those drugs might be just around the corner. Bacteria typically become resistant to antibiotics through exposure to them. The finger of blame for the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- a spread that apparently began in the early 1990s -- is generally pointed at human overuse of the drugs, especially in hospitals, where until recently MRSA was most often seen and transmitted. But while MRSA may be most easily transmitted in a hospital, that doesn't mean the bug developed its resistance there. When it comes to the overuse of antibiotics, even the most profligate of hospitals can't touch the sheer amount thrown around down on the farm. Today, by most estimates, farming consumes many more antibiotics than human medicine does. No one, including government agencies, has definitive numbers, but in 2001, the Union of Concerned Scientists released a now widely accepted estimate suggesting that up to 84 percent of all antimicrobials (a slightly broader category that includes antibiotics) were being used in agriculture. Studies conducted in Europe -- and one just released in Canada, the leading exporter of pork to the United States -- suggest that farm animals are at the very least reservoirs for heretofore-unseen strains and that the animals are passing those strains on to their human caretakers. Here in the United States, however, scientists have yet to study the possibility that agriculture may be playing a role in the changing nature of MRSA -- even though the way we raise the food we eat may be making us sick. "If you really step back from the whole problem in a realistic kind of a fashion and say, Where is this coming from? Where is this being generated?" says Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins and editor in chief of the journal Environmental Research, "then your mind really has to turn to agriculture because of the overwhelming amount of antimicrobials that are used in agriculture as opposed to clinical use." From [www.salon.com] Cheers, J  Re: Farm animals, antimicrobials and superbugs - the case in favour of a plant diet
Posted by:
suncloud
()
Date: November 07, 2007 07:53PM Thanks for printing that great information Jose! Re: Farm animals, antimicrobials and superbugs - the case in favour of a plant diet
Posted by:
jono
()
Date: November 07, 2007 09:10PM >>>When the environmental and moral arguments don't seem to be getting through, this is yet another scientific argument to convince someone that animal products aren't very good for us.
<<< Or, it's a good way to convince someone to choose organic grass/pasture fed meats from reliable sources rather than the nasty factory stuff. Re: Farm animals, antimicrobials and superbugs - the case in favour of a plant diet
Posted by:
Seabucktho
()
Date: November 08, 2007 05:22AM In other news, water wet.
Not being flippant, but grrrr... When is the world going to wake up and realise the legion of devastations that is factory farming? Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
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