Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Breeding Bacteria on Factory Farms
Arthurbodhi
Mars Veteran
The story of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in farm animals is not a simple one. But here’s the pitch version: Yet another study has reinforced the idea that keeping animals in confinement and feeding them antibiotics prophylactically breeds varieties of bacteria that cause disease in humans, disease that may not readily be treated by antibiotics. Since some of these bacteria can be fatal, that’s a scary combination.
Full Article:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/breeding-bacteria-on-factory-farms/
Full Article:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/breeding-bacteria-on-factory-farms/
2
Comments
Though there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that some aspect of vegetarianism may be just as sinister and manipulated.....
The crop in question was spinach.
Three of the people affected died.
Source;
www.science20.com
I don't think I need to worry.
Thanks anyway!
I've always wanted to go vegetarian but didn't have the guts. My girlfriend has just decided to take the plunge effective immediately so I'm starting the transition phase now.
I wonder if I'll be sneaking off for a cheeseburger.
When I come down with amoebic dysentery, I'll be sure to let you all know.
At least, I'll be the only 'animal' to have suffered.
However, one does not need to inject fruits and vegetables with large amounts of antibiotics just to grow them and thereby, even if they do become contaminated, does not contribute to the increase of resistant bacteria. The only thing in farming that does that is the use of the antibiotic in animals. Fruits and vegetables are completely outside of that chain of cause and effect. So given that, it is still another good reason to steer clear of this meat regardless if vegetables become contaminated or not. Contaminated fruits and vegetables are irrelevant with regards to the continued increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Note especially comments between 1-2 mins in this vid:
http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/basics/cook/index.html
But remember that in food is not the only way to get contagious by bacteria.
Realistically speaking, there is no way to tell if what you're eating was once covered in manure, so wash everything! I have a veggie brush for certain veggies/fruits. You can also buy fruit/veg wash that is supposed to be better. Get a salad spinner for salads (seriously, best investment ever). And if you choose to eat meat, just make sure you cook it thoroughly.
The thing is, that there are vaccines that can be used against most types of bacteria that affect those farm animals. Buying and giving those vaccine shots to hundreds of animals might be a time ( especially ) and money wasting thing, but a better solution than feeding animals with antibiotics.
But, the issue of food poisoning is really not the issue here. The issue is really the continued emergence of "superbugs". Just washing or cooking does nothing to address that problem.
The simple facts are that your body's immune system is very got at dealing with most bacteria it encounters, if you clean, cook and store your food correctly you'll be fine. The exception are those people who are immuno-compromised. Worrying and stress are known to affect the immune system negatively, so being overly concerned about perhaps catching something from your food is actually more likely to make you catch something from your food.
And from the study itself. "These findings support growing concern about antibiotics use and confinement in livestock production, raising questions about the potential for occupational exposure to an opportunistic and drug-resistant pathogen, which in other settings including hospitals and the community is of broad public health importance."
The issue is much bigger than food.
After antibiotics: what happens when the drugs don't work
• Transplant surgery becomes virtually impossible. Organ recipients have to take immune-suppressing drugs for life to stop rejection of a new heart or kidney. Their immune systems cannot fight off life-threatening infections without antibiotics.
• Removing a burst appendix becomes a dangerous operation once again. Patients are routinely given antibiotics after surgery to prevent the wound becoming infected by bacteria. If bacteria get into the bloodstream, they can cause life-threatening septicaemia.
• Pneumonia becomes once more "the old man's friend". Antibiotics have stopped it being the mass-killer it once was, particularly among the old and frail, who would lapse into unconsciousness and often slip away in their sleep. Other diseases of old age, such as cancer, have taken over.
• Gonorrhea becomes hard to treat. Resistant strains are already on the rise. Without treatment, the sexually transmitted disease causes pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and ectopic pregnancies.
• Tuberculosis becomes incurable – first we had TB, then multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and now there is XDR-TB (extremely drug resistant TB). TB requires very long courses (six months or more) of antibiotics. The very human tendency to stop taking or forget to take the drugs has contributed to the spread of resistance.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/12/the-end-of-antibiotics-health-infections
Example:
I eat tons of factory farmed meat. As a result, I am eating the antibiotics that those animals were fed while on the farm.
I get sick from bacteria on raw spinach caused by cow feces, and need antibiotics for a bad infection.
Antibiotics do nothing because the germ I have contracted has become immune to those antibiotics because they are so extremely common, and the same type of antibiotic that the cows are given on the farm. So, the drugs that normally would save my life, no longer work. Cooking the food does not make that problem go away.
When I was a kid, I was on antibx all the time. I had chronic ear infections, and when I got a little older, strep throat 2-3 times a year for 10 years straight. I've been very cautious in allowing my children to have them, preferring to treat ear infections and other things with more natural methods.
I wish we had a longer growing season, I wouldn't buy anything from the store, lol. The only fertilizer we use is the compost we make.
I haven't said excessive antibiotic usage isn't a bad thing, only that if you cook meat properly you won't catch anything from it, antibiotic resistant or otherwise. Raw food is obviously a different matter. You disagree with what?
What I've told you is what antibiotics are used for and how they work, if you disagree with that you disagree with nature.
To clarify the article, someone on immunosuppresents doesn't lack an immune system, it's just weakened. They're given antibiotics to prop up the immune system, not replace it. The drugs keep the bacterial numbers to a manageable amount, allowing time for the suppressed immune system to react and develop sufficient antibody producing B-cells to deal with the infection.
I work with antibiotics in-vitro (outside of living organisms) everyday, they're really only useful for killing small numbers of bacteria, to prevent infection at the low-level stages. They're pretty useless at dealing with an established bacterial colony, they'll bring the numbers down sure but ultimately the bacteria will prevail without an immune system to do the hard work and develop an immunity.
Remember that in the past we already deal with god-like death machine bacterias when antibiotics wasn't around yet.
Still, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Did you know for example that the BCG vaccination against TB is derived from extremely attenuated bovine TB and it's efficacy can be as low as 0% protection? Yet in the West people rarely suffer from TB. It's partly because 90% of people infected with TB are asymptomatic, their immune systems easily combat the mycobacteria without even a whiff of antibiotic aid.
People at risk from antibiotic resistant and normal bacteria are those with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, and people who live in unsanitary conditions with poor diet.
Also, you're going to die of something and that's beyond your control. Eating well, living sensibly in a clean (but not sterile) environment and giving your immune system a boost with garlic, echinacea and other beneficial herbs are the best things you can do to avoid death by plague. Worrying about things out of your control won't help at all.
Anyway I totally understand you point, no need to keep arguments flows.
Chronic intake of antibiotics will only make matters worse for the already-in-a-bad-shape organism. I'm not talking about bacteria getting resistance , but about liver and kidney toxicity and also lack of vitamin K and vitamin B complex synthesis ( if the AB is administered orally ) The surgery professor at my college's veterinary clinic told us about a study where it has shown that flushing the abdomen ( you gave the example of an appendectomy) with saline solution before closing the abdomen reduced the infection risk by 70 % .
Infection risk during surgery is high if the basic Aseptic measures have been ignored. Post-op infections can occur if either the incision is not sutured and/or 'dressed' properly ( antibiotic sprayed) or if the patient comes in contact with some 'hospital' bacteria, and that's the most unfortunate thing that could happen. Yes, AB stopped pneumonia from being a mass-killer, but so did hygiene and a good quality of life (in the civilised world). I like to think that ABs bought us time to 'better prevent than treat' such diseases. Yes, resistant strains do that, but so can do non-resistant strains. There are some bacteria that don't manifest themselves in the genital tract of either male or female, but can lead to abortions and infertility. As I said above, better prevent than treat the disease. There is BCG vaccine against TB. Also, there are immune system boosters that can be used. Also, and very, very important, there is this thing called HYGIENE. TB is considered a misery disease, and you can consider TB nearly eradicated in the civilized societies.