Why Are USA Veterinarians Supporting Factory Farms?
Last week, a study released by the University of Iowa showed a higher incidence of serious antibiotic-resistant infections in U.S. hogworkers than in the general public. Researchers found that 3.7 percent of these farm workers have been diagnosed with one very frightening incarnation of our overuse of antibiotics, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MSRA kills 19,000 people in the United States yearly, according to a Voice of America article. The World Health Organization is calling antibiotic resistance one of the three greatest threats to human health.As GOOD magazine reports, 3.7 percent may not seem like a lot, but consider the fact that this number is probably much higher: The study relied on self-reported conditions, and infections may be misdiagnosed by rural doctors, which are usually the ones treating farm workers. Moreover, many workers may not seek medical treatment at all, and some producers may cover up infections for fear of identification.
Overuse (which of course is misuse) of antibiotics used on healthy feed animals in unhealthy environments (i.e. concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)) has been linked to drug resistance in humans. We aren't talking about just treating sick animals here. Antibiotics are used in factory farms to promote growth in animals and to keep them from getting sick in the squalor and neglect of a CAFO environment. U.S. meat production differs from Europe in that Europe does not give livestock human antibiotics and can only legally treat animals with antibiotics when these animals are sick.
So when it comes to the overuse of antibiotics in our food supply, want to know just how much is too much? How about 29 million pounds of antibiotics last year alone? According to the Homeland Security Newswire, the Food and Drug Administration states that 80 percent of antibiotics produced in the U.S. is going into livestock — 80 percent! It's little surprise that this practice is starting to cause very major human health concerns.
The American Medical Veterinary Association (AMVA) has been successful in stalling legislation that would curb the unnecessary use of antibiotics in livestock. The irony here is that these animals become sick more often due to the abusive conditions that they are raised in. Living knee-deep in manure is likely to spread infection, eh? How about cramming a massive quantity of animals into tiny, dark, and filthy quarters? Or feeding them a diet that they weren't even evolutionarily designed to digest to make them fatter faster? The AMVA should be concerned with changing factory farm conditions, not joining with the ranks of Big Pharma to pump animals full of unnecessary drugs. According to the AMVA mission statement, the group's purpose is to "improve animal and human health." Supporting the status quo on a CAFO certainly proves to be counterproductive to that task.
http://food.change.org/blog
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