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sarah gilbert
Dr. Tom Anderson has died, suddenly and at the age of 54, and Nicholas Kristof blames the pigs. In a bout of sad irony, shortly before his death Anderson had invited Kristof to come to hog farm town Camden, Indiana to expose the problem of MRSA—methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus—one of the "superbugs" that has developed an unusual resistance to antibiotics. MRSA is, literally, a flesh-eating bacteria, which can occur as a rash and sores, or can also lead to heart inflammation. In 2004, a particularly virulent strain of MRSA erupted in the Netherlands, where a study found pig farmers were 760 times more likely than the general population to carry MRSA (whether or not symptoms erupted).
Dr. Anderson wasn't autopsied, but blood tests indicate a heart attack. And while human contact with raw pork hasn't been proven to spread the disease (though it is suspected), fears are growing that ground water could be contaminated with the disease from the pigs' waste; CAFO hog farms are particularly susceptible to accidental waste spills, and it is in these confined animal farming operations that so-called "prophylactic antibiotics" in feed are most commonly used. In the New York Times, Kristof leads us to blame "the routine use—make that the insane overuse—of antibiotics in livestock feed" for the development of MRSA and bugs like it.
MRSA kills 18,000 Americans each year (more than AIDS), and Kristof isn't the only one raising an alarm, demanding that the U.S., like most European countries (and even South Korea), should ban the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in animal feed. The Medical Clinics of North America, Infectious Diseases Society of America and Representative Louise Slaughter of New York all agree, and York plans to re-introduce legislation previously blocked by agribusiness interests. Kristof asks President Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to support the legislation, saying superbugs like MRSA are "evidence of an industrial farming system that is broken: for the sake of faster-growing hogs, we're empowering microbes that endanger our food supply and threaten our lives."
While Obama's food safety address last week seems hopeful, Vilsack's background and cozy relationship with companies like Monsanto doesn't bode well for the future of anti-antibiotic campaigns. Perhaps a public outcry like that connected to the salmonella outbreak (which, after all, only killed nine people) is in order. Or perhaps the fate of pig farmers, not exactly lunchroom chatter at Sidwell Friends School, is too far out of common concern to make a dent in the President's policy priorities.
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Eeew. I think I just bought my last grocery store ham today. Literally.
Meanwhile, they're counting the increasing number MRSA deaths that coincide with influenza as deaths from the flu, and pushing more flu vaccinations instead of getting to the root of this problem, part of which is this love affair we have with antibiotics.
I have a hard time reading this and not falling into depression. How can we go on like this? How can we fix it? Are baby steps taken by moms and dads here and there going to be enough to change this freaking mess? I hope so, because it's all I can manage. I'll write my reps and link to this article and vote with my dollars. What else can we do?
Good post. Confinement animal husbandry is so bad in so many many ways. "They" say they need the prophylactic doses of antibiotic in the feed because without it the animals will die before they fatten enough to slaughter. Well, who knows, maybe they are right. The hazardous materials outfits men must wear in the pig confinement houses to avoid being gassed say it all about the quality of the animal's life or it's potential health. Of all the things that make me mad about industrial agriculture, confinement raising of critters makes me angriest. It doesn't have to be this way.
Animals who are raised properly on proper diets and healthy environments don't get sick, don't need antibiotics, aren't creating all kinds of new and worse strains of E-coli, or resistant staph infections. Look to grass fed hogs, chickens, cattle for your meat.