By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: April 4, 2012
New York Times
Let’s hope you’re not reading this column while munching on a chicken sandwich.
That’s because my topic today is a pair of new scientific studies suggesting that poultry on factory farms are routinely fed caffeine, active ingredients of Tylenol and Benadryl, banned antibiotics and even arsenic.
“We were kind of floored,” said Keeve E. Nachman, a co-author of both studies and a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future. “It’s unbelievable what we found.”
He said that the researchers had intended to test only for antibiotics. But assays for other chemicals and pharmaceuticals didn’t cost extra, so researchers asked for those results as well.
“We haven’t found anything that is an immediate health concern,” Nachman added. “But it makes me question how comfortable we are feeding a number of these things to animals that we’re eating. It bewilders me.”
Likewise, I grew up on a farm, and thought I knew what to expect in my food. But Benadryl? Arsenic? These studies don’t mean that you should dump the contents of your refrigerator, but they do raise serious questions about the food we eat and how we should shop.
It turns out that arsenic has routinely been fed to poultry (and sometimes hogs) because it reduces infections and makes flesh an appetizing shade of pink. There’s no evidence that such low levels of arsenic harm either chickens or the people eating them, but still...
Big Ag doesn’t advertise the chemicals it stuffs into animals, so the scientists conducting these studies figured out a clever way to detect them. Bird feathers, like human fingernails, accumulate chemicals and drugs that an animal is exposed to. So scientists from Johns Hopkins University and Arizona State University examined feather meal — a poultry byproduct made of feathers.
One study, just published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Environmental Science & Technology, found that feather meal routinely contained a banned class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. These antibiotics (such as Cipro), are illegal in poultry production because they can breed antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that harm humans. Already, antibiotic-resistant infections kill more Americans annually than AIDS, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
The same study also found that one-third of feather-meal samples contained an antihistamine that is the active ingredient of Benadryl. The great majority of feather meal contained acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. And feather-meal samples from China contained an antidepressant that is the active ingredient in Prozac.
Poultry-growing literature has recommended Benadryl to reduce anxiety among chickens, apparently because stressed chickens have tougher meat and grow more slowly. Tylenol and Prozac presumably serve the same purpose.
Researchers found that most feather-meal samples contained caffeine. It turns out that chickens are sometimes fed coffee pulp and green tea powder to keep them awake so that they can spend more time eating. (Is that why they need the Benadryl, to calm them down?)
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
Showing posts with label antibiotics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label antibiotics. Show all posts
6/29/10
FDA Guidance: Non-Medical Antibiotic Use in Animals a Bad Idea
By Katherine Hobson
June 28, 2010, 3:11 PM ET
The FDA says that using antibiotics in animals simply to increase production or spur rapid growth is a public-health hazard.
This notion isn’t new to Michael Pollan acolytes or repeat readers of “Fast Food Nation,” but the fact that the FDA is issuing draft guidance on the issue signals it may be ready to take more aggressive measures — including instituting new rules — if voluntary efforts don’t succeed. “We’re not handcuffed to the steering wheel of a particular strategy at this point,” said Joshua Sharfstein, the agency’s principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, in a conference call with reporters. “I’m not ruling out anything we could do to accomplish these important public-health goals.”
The concern is that the widespread use of antibiotics in both animals and people fosters resistance in the microbes that afflict humans, making infections more difficult and sometimes impossible to treat. (And, as we reported last year, resistance also makes infections more expensive to deal with.)
CLICK HERE for whole story.
June 28, 2010, 3:11 PM ET
The FDA says that using antibiotics in animals simply to increase production or spur rapid growth is a public-health hazard.
This notion isn’t new to Michael Pollan acolytes or repeat readers of “Fast Food Nation,” but the fact that the FDA is issuing draft guidance on the issue signals it may be ready to take more aggressive measures — including instituting new rules — if voluntary efforts don’t succeed. “We’re not handcuffed to the steering wheel of a particular strategy at this point,” said Joshua Sharfstein, the agency’s principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, in a conference call with reporters. “I’m not ruling out anything we could do to accomplish these important public-health goals.”
The concern is that the widespread use of antibiotics in both animals and people fosters resistance in the microbes that afflict humans, making infections more difficult and sometimes impossible to treat. (And, as we reported last year, resistance also makes infections more expensive to deal with.)
CLICK HERE for whole story.
5/25/09
Living on Earth - Antibiotic use in poultry
"Back in the 1950's, farmers found that by adding small doses of antibiotics to chicken feed, the birds would grow faster and plumper. And with the rise of factory farms, the antibiotics help prevent disease.
But science now shows that the widespread use of these drugs in animal feed can make them far less effective for humans, as germs develop resistance. Four of the country's top poultry producers recently announced that they will no longer use antibiotics unless birds are ill or directly threatened with illness.
Under pressure from major buyers, including McDonalds, the chicken business had already started reducing the use of drugs with Tyson Foods, the largest producer, recently cutting antibiotic use by more than 90 percent"
2006
CLICK HERE for entire show
But science now shows that the widespread use of these drugs in animal feed can make them far less effective for humans, as germs develop resistance. Four of the country's top poultry producers recently announced that they will no longer use antibiotics unless birds are ill or directly threatened with illness.
Under pressure from major buyers, including McDonalds, the chicken business had already started reducing the use of drugs with Tyson Foods, the largest producer, recently cutting antibiotic use by more than 90 percent"
2006
CLICK HERE for entire show
5/19/09
Animal Drug User Fee Act H.R. 6432
An estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are regularly added to the feed of livestock and poultry that are not sick.
CLICK HERE TO READ whole bill
CLICK HERE TO READ whole bill
5/17/09
Anti-Antibiotics - LOE 3/2009
"The vast majority of antibiotics aren't used on people - they're fed to farm animals to make them grow faster – or keep them healthy under stressful conditions. Last year farm animals in North Carolina alone consumed more antibiotics than were prescribed for all the people in the United States."
Representative Louise Slaughter says that's got to stop. The New York Representative has introduced a bill in Congress to limit the use of antibiotics on the farm. It's called the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act.
GELLERMAN: I noticed that a lot of chicken companies in the United States have started giving up voluntarily the use of antibiotics.
SLAUGHTER: Yes, I think a lot of people have – mostly because people have, as I said a while ago – this is an entirely new population of thought than we had even four years ago of people who are much more aware. Because of the deaths and the peanut butter scare and the other things – meat recalls – and all the things that they've seen, I think they understand that their food supply's not safe. And that's one of the least things that they could have always been able to expect from us. And it is our job here to make sure that they are safe. So I think this bill will pass much easier and quicklier now. Senator Kennedy will be carrying it in the Senate. We never predict the Senate's actions, but I believe it will pass the House handily.
Read whole article
Representative Louise Slaughter says that's got to stop. The New York Representative has introduced a bill in Congress to limit the use of antibiotics on the farm. It's called the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act.
GELLERMAN: I noticed that a lot of chicken companies in the United States have started giving up voluntarily the use of antibiotics.
SLAUGHTER: Yes, I think a lot of people have – mostly because people have, as I said a while ago – this is an entirely new population of thought than we had even four years ago of people who are much more aware. Because of the deaths and the peanut butter scare and the other things – meat recalls – and all the things that they've seen, I think they understand that their food supply's not safe. And that's one of the least things that they could have always been able to expect from us. And it is our job here to make sure that they are safe. So I think this bill will pass much easier and quicklier now. Senator Kennedy will be carrying it in the Senate. We never predict the Senate's actions, but I believe it will pass the House handily.
Read whole article
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