U.S. Meat Farmers Brace for Limits on Antibiotics

[Buster]

"Dispensing antibiotics to healthy animals is routine on the large, concentrated farms that now dominate American agriculture. But the practice is increasingly condemned by medical experts who say it contributes to a growing scourge of modern medicine: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including dangerous E. coli strains that account for millions of bladder infections each year, as well as resistant types of salmonella and other microbes.

"Now, after decades of debate, the Food and Drug Administration appears poised to issue its strongest guidelines on animal antibiotics yet, intended to reduce what it calls a clear risk to human health. They would end farm uses of the drugs simply to promote faster animal growth and call for tighter oversight by veterinarians

"The agencys final version is expected within months, and comes at a time when animal confinement methods, safety monitoring and other aspects of so-called factory farming are also under sharp attack. The federal proposal has struck a nerve among major livestock producers, who argue that a direct link between farms and human illness has not been proved. The producers are vigorously opposing it even as many medical and health experts call it too timid.

"Scores of scientific groups, including the American Medical Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, are calling for even stronger action that would bar most uses of key antibiotics in healthy animals, including use for disease prevention, as with Mr. Rowless piglets. Such a bill is gaining traction in Congress... "

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/us/15farm.html

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Well I don't know if any changes will be met, but if they crack down on the so called 'farms', we can get ready to pay dearly for store bought meats. What some of us do, might get a bit more popular. I don't know.....It can happen, but not sure how they will go with that one.

 

[lalaland]

good news.

I am not so sure that less antibiotic use necessarily will mean costs go up - didn't happen in Europe when they banned antibiotics in the poultry farms (course, Europeans dont' have to consider the "rights" of corporations, so they tend to make decisions in favor of the consumers much much faster than here in the US where a corporation has some of the same rights we do as individuals)

 

[~gd]

good news.

I am not so sure that less antibiotic use necessarily will mean costs go up - didn't happen in Europe when they banned antibiotics in the poultry farms (course, Europeans dont' have to consider the "rights" of corporations, so they tend to make decisions in favor of the consumers much much faster than here in the US where a corporation has some of the same rights we do as individuals)

And just When was that so called ban put in place in Europe? are you sure it is any different than the FDA ban in the US that say that antibiotic residues can not be present in poultry meat or eggs? With the European method that require birds to have the right to be outdoors they are more likely to need antibiotics than the US where commercial chickens only see the outdoors on their final ride to "freezer camp" Biosecurity is much cheaper than antibiotics.

 

[Farmfresh]

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressRelease...7&type=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

"An EU-wide ban on the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feed enters into effect on January 1, 2006. The last 4 antibiotics which have been permitted as feed additives to help fatten livestock will no longer be allowed to be marketed or used from this date. The ban is the final step in the phasing out of antibiotics used for non-medicinal purposes. It is part of the Commissions overall strategy to tackle the emergence of bacteria and other microbes resistant to antibiotics, due to their overexploitation or misuse. "

Antibiotics have been used in this way routinely in the US as well since the early 1950's. That is a large part of the reason most commercial producers feed a constant diet of antibiotic ... it helps with weight gain.

and another source

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/234566.stm

 

[Shiloh Acres]

You can attack me saying so if you want, and I've not researched it, no, but my instincts tell me that my chickens that run around outside in the dirt, sunshine, and bushes all day eating bugs and forage are much healthier than they would be if I kept them locked info an overcrowded coop all the time. In years of keeping chickens I've dealt with predators and the occasional accident but so far, never illness. And ever since my first batch of chicks, I don't feed medicated feed of any kind or vaccinate.

I suspect the factory farms couldn't say the same if they kept the indoor overcrowded conditions and left the antibiotics.

I like MY chickens -- just the way they are.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Well my animals are very healthy too, although some are ugly because of the molt and heat. But I would think that removing the antibiotics from the large commercial chicken brooders, would be a death sentence, under their current practices.
Without antibiotics, they would die of the constant filth and poor air they are exposed to. They live out their whole life in a concentration camp and go almost straight to the supermarket, loaded down with antibiotics and clorine.
The only way I can see stopping the antibiotics, is to eliminate the need for it and that would be better for the public, the animals and the people that have to work in close contact with them, but all that would cost money and eventually we would catch it at the cash register. At least that is how I believe it would turn out.
I can't see it hurting me, personally too much, because I am opposed to buying very much of my meat at the store anyway, for some of those very reasons.
Perhaps if this comes down, I will have a better way of judging how much to sell my meat chickens for. Now I have in my head that a fryer would cost about 5 bucks to get in the store. If the price goes up to 10, then I have more possibilities. I won't hold my breath. We will see how this turns out. Might not even hear another thing about it. The feds have enough mess to clean up.