"First line antibiotics were no longer curing basic infections,
and doctors were concerned. I thought, 'Wow this is obvioiusly
crazy, I have to do something about this.'"
- Dr. Lance Price (George Washington Univ., Washington, DC)
- Sabrina Tavernise (New York Times, 29 July 2013)
In yesterday's post, I discussed how the use of antibiotics in livestock feed is becoming a mainstream topic; that it is no longer relegated to the peer reviewed scientific journals. We then took a look at a recent article from C&EN that nicely summed up some of the most current scientific research and legislative action addressing the issue. My take away: consumers are increasingly leaning towards antibiotic-free meat when they shop (relatively speaking), but would the fledgling market pressure really cause agribusiness to braodly change the way it raises livestock before the antibiotic resistant bugs they are breeding take over the world? [Zombie apocalypse, remember?]
Well, every once in a while, life finds a way of totally validating your world view (uh huh...). This happened to me today when I was perusing the latest Science Times section of the New York Times, where the topic of antibiotic use in animal husbandry got some front page (below the fold... a-hem) attention. In an article titled "Tracing Germs Through the Aisles", NY Times journalist Sabrina Tavernise reports on work being done in the laboratory of Dr. Lance Price (quoted above). His team has been purchasing all brands and types of meat at the major supermarkets in Flagstaff, AZ, where his lab is based, and testing for a specific strain of antibiotic resistant E. coli that is a major causative agent of urinary tract infections in women. The question: are women contracting the bug from the meat they are buying at the grocery store? The article tells us to look for the results of the study this fall. If Dr. Price's team concludes that contaminated meat is causing drug-resistant disease in the consumer population, it will go one step further than the studies we discussed in my post yesterday, where bugs were observed to be transmitted between live animals and livestock workers. Watch this space.
The article also referenced the legislative actions Rep. Lousie Slaughter (D-NY) has taken to address the public health challenges posed by antibiotic use in the rearing of livestock. I found it notable that "nine out of ten" lobbying disclosure reports - out of a total of 225 - that were filed in response to her legislative efforts from the last Congress, were from agribusiness sources opposed to the legislation.
For those interested in reading up more on this hot topic, the article referenced previous coverage in the The New York Times (16 April 2013; "Report on U.S. Meat Sounds Alarm on Resistant Bacteria") regarding a report published by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (joint between FDA, Dept. of Agriculture and the CDC) that found drug resistant bugs in astoundingly high percentages of supermarket meat products. The article doesn't go into great detail about the modes of resistance, whether or not the bugs were multi-drug resistant, etc., so it may be less satisfying of a read for my microbiologically inclined readers. For those of you who prefer a peer-reviewed look at the subject, I would recommend checking out a review article by Dr. Price and colleagues: Curr. Op. Microbiol., 2011, 14, 244-250, "An ecological perspective on U.S. industrial poultry production..."
I have no doubt that there are many more articles and reports on this subject that have come out recently. If you know of something that is particularly interesting, please leave a link in the comments.
- @EJDimise
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