Topic: the real antibiotics scandal, or TIME TO CALL A PIG A PIG
sometimesdilly
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9982
posted
The big picture about the overuse of antibiotics, and why IDSA's ranting on the subject when it comes to Lyme treatment is all the more outrageous, off-base, and a BIG FAT LIE:
ps- my rants are in bold ---------------------- March 15, 2009 WP Pathogens in Our Pork By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF ---------------------- We don't add antibiotics to baby food and Cocoa Puffs so that children get fewer ear infections.
That's because we understand that the overuse of antibiotics is already creating ``superbugs'' resistant to medication.
Yet we continue to allow agribusiness companies to add antibiotics to animal feed so that piglets stay healthy and don't get ear infections.
Seventy percent of all antibiotics in the United States go to healthy livestock
according to a careful study by the Union of Concerned Scientists -- and that's one reason we're seeing the rise of pathogens that defy antibiotics.
These dangerous pathogens are now even in our food supply. Five out of 90 samples of retail pork in Louisiana tested positive for MRSA -- an antibiotic-resistant staph infection -- according to a peer-reviewed study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology last year.
And a recent study of retail meats in the Washington, D.C., area found MRSA in one pork sample, out of 300, according to Jianghong Meng, the University of Maryland scholar who conducted the study.
Regardless of whether the bacteria came from the pigs or from humans who handled the meat, the results should sound an alarm bell, for MRSA already kills more than 18,000 Americans annually, more than AIDS does.
MRSA (pronounced ``mersa'') stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. People often get it from hospitals, but as I wrote in my last column, a new strain called ST398 is emerging and seems to find a reservoir in modern hog farms.
Research by Peter Davies of the University of Minnesota suggests that 25 percent to 39 percent of American hogs carry MRSA.
Public health experts worry that pigs could pass on the infection by direct contact with their handlers, through their wastes leaking into ground water (one study has already found antibiotic-resistant bacteria entering ground water from hog farms), or through their meat, though there has been no proven case of someone getting it from eating pork.
Thorough cooking will kill the bacteria, but people often use the same knife to cut raw meat and then to chop vegetables. Or they plop a pork chop on a plate, cook it and then contaminate it by putting it back on the original plate.
Yet the central problem here isn't pigs, it's humans.
Unlike Europe and even South Korea, the United States still bows to agribusiness interests by permitting the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in animal feed.
That's unconscionable. (hear hear!! say it loud!!!)
The peer-reviewed Medical Clinics of North America concluded last year that antibiotics in livestock feed were ``a major component'' in the rise in antibiotic resistance.
( Question- ask yourself- why then isn't the IDSA directing their too-much-abuse of abx campaign to where the problem actually IS?
The article said that more antibiotics were fed to animals in North Carolina alone than were administered to the nation's entire human population.
this line should be used by EVERY Lyme activist and in every piece of PR
``We don't give antibiotics to healthy humans,'' said Robert Martin, who led a Pew Commission on industrial farming that examined antibiotic use. ``So why give them to healthy animals just so we can keep them in crowded and unsanitary conditions?''
The answer is simple: politics.
Legislation to ban the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture has always been blocked by agribusiness interests.
Louise Slaughter of New York, who is the sole microbiologist in the House of Representatives, said she planned to reintroduce the legislation this coming week.
``We're losing the ability to treat humans,'' she said. ``We have misused one of the best scientific products we've had.''
That's an almost universal view in the public health world.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America has declared antibiotic resistance a ``public health crisis'' and recounts the story of Rebecca Lohsen, a 17-year-old New Jersey girl who died from MRSA in 2006.
you are spitting out your coffee as you read that, yes?
She came down with what she thought was a sore throat, endured months in the hospital, and finally died because the microbes were stronger than the drugs.
This will be an important test for President Obama and his agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack. Traditionally, the Agriculture Department has functioned mostly as a protector of agribusiness interests, but Mr. Obama and Mr. Vilsack have both said all the right things about looking after eaters as well as producers.
So Mr. Obama and Mr. Vilsack, will you line up to curb the use of antibiotics in raising American livestock?
That is 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.
Posts: 2507 | From lost in the maze | Registered: Aug 2006
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Vermont_Lymie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9780
posted
Hi Dills,
Yes, you are right -- the IDSA are big fat hypocrites, and it is right there for everyone to see!
If they really cared about creating abx-resistant dangerous infections, they would be working on this issue, rather than tormenting people who need abx to treat bacterial infections.
Kristof did another article on this earlier in the week; I will try to post that later.
[ 03-15-2009, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Vermont_Lymie ]
Posts: 2557 | From home | Registered: Aug 2006
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Abxnomore
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 18936
posted
It's not just hogs, it chicken, beef, farmed fish and all live stock. And it didn't touch on the hormones that they are given, which messes with all
of our systems and is the known reason for estrogen dominance in Americans responsible for many different kinds of cancers.
Yes, it's sad to read this when we are denied ABX and it is given to livestock which further damages our health.
We have ruined our food chain for big business and big profits. Other countries, where fresh "real" food is appreciated have not been so quick to let industry pull the wool over their eyes.
The IDSA is a bunch of greedy pigs.
Posts: 5191 | From Lyme Zone | Registered: Jan 2009
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
Yes, and to to top it all off, this is being done so that animals can live in horrific, abusive living conditions, all for greed. It's disgusting on many levels.
Terry
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
I just got a letter.
WHY oh WHY do they always write to me?
It was from The International Society For Pretty Pink Pigs.
The letter said... and it was sort of hard to read.... I had to brush off some mud to see some of the words...
But it said the Society was very upset with people at Lyme Net.
The main point they were trying to make was they are highly insulted that they are being compared to the IDSA members.
They don't feel they deserve that kind of abuse.
They requested that if we want to call IDSA what they really are...
We should pick on the devil, as it would be more appropriate.
I wrote back and told them the devil threatened us when he heard he was being degraded too.... so we had to give up that name as a comparison.
I told the Pretty Pink Pig Society we were very sorry and we would try to refrain from bringing down a pigs good name from now on.
posted
this is a huge issue as well as hormones, and any other additives being used in the food chain, MRSA is an ifection that started in hospitals (oops, us nurses no longer prime iv lines in the med room trash cans, is thought to be how/were this began..we didnt mean it, promise) MRSA has gone to hospital opportunistic infection, to public infections that is spread now through schools, or anywhere folks gather. Now has gone to food chain, this is scary stuff
that country house we have our eye on keeps looking better and better, plenty space to raise our own beef, chickens, etc (lol..already has chicken coop!)
prayers to anyone who has a sec. for our family move this summer !! we need acrage and mutifamily living available....and we do fully plan on doing our own food as mcuh as possible
maybe the waltons had it right??
-------------------- i am not a Dr. any info is only for education, suggestion or to think/research. please do not mis-intuprest as diagnostic or prescriptive, only trying to help. **
dx in 08:lyme, rmsf, bart, babs, and m.pneumonia. Posts: 422 | From TX | Registered: Oct 2008
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Geneal
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10375
posted
Interesting.
My standard reply when someone asks me if it
Bothers me to have been on antibiotics this long is
"Why? Everytime you eat beef, chicken, pork you are getting antibiotics too."
Maybe it is the overtreatment of acne that is next on the list.
Oh the horror!
Growth hormones are a major issue too.
It is scary to see 8 year old girls developing.
Thanks McD's chicken nuggets.
TC, loved your pig letter.
Can't say I am suprised.
I wonder what else they put into our food/water supply.....
I'm sure we will never know.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posts: 6250 | From Louisiana | Registered: Oct 2006
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sometimesdilly
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9982
posted
TC- you're right, dear.
my humblest apologies to over-medicated (and as Terry says, miserable) pigs everywhere for smearing them with IDSA's name.
i know and ya'll clearly know that this pig story is only a small part of the larger scandal of our deeply contaminated food-supply system.
to me, though, the story seems especially relevant to the politics of Lyme.
as Vermont said, how much bigger can the wordS HYPROCRISY AND LIES!!! be written in the sky for all to see,
that IDSA conveniently overlooks the well protected drug kingpins of antibiotics abuse- agribusinesses- while relentlessly hounding the nickel and dime end users who actually need the stuff to stay alive?
puh-lease.
sorry again, pigs. and hmm.... your cousins won't be appearing on MY plate anytime soon.
sticking to pickles, dill
Posts: 2507 | From lost in the maze | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
I've known about this too. Is Lyme the horrible bug that it is because those animals get bit by ticks and the Lymbe bacteria know all too well the antiobiotics we are being treated with?
-------------------- Dying is easy. Living is harder. Posts: 257 | From owensboro kentucky | Registered: Mar 2008
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Ocean
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3496
posted
Geneal,
For years my mom has talked about girls developing WAY too soon! We rarely ate meat and when we did, it was organic, from her grandfather and my dad's uncle or the Amish around the area.
It is scary! I was 16 when I got my period, my sister was 18! Our brother also matured very late, he looked like he was 14 when he graduated high school, grew until he was 22 years old when he was in college.
The growth hormones are just awful, I see my niece, who is very thin developing way too young, they eat a lot of non-organic dairy and meat.
And of course all the abx in stuff! I'm glad we are in a natural food co-op (although we are vegetarians too), we can buy organic stuff for the same price as much of the non-organic foods at grocery stores.
'Kete-tracker
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 17189
posted
"...more antibiotics were fed to animals in North Carolina alone than were administered to the nation's entire human population."
I would love to have this independantly verified & documented. Not that I doubt it's accuracy, but that it would resonate as a wake-up call in the controversy over abx overuse in this country.
Two questions: How did they "quantify" such use...Which antibiotics, & how much/ how often?
Also, what regulations ARE there in the purchase of livestock antibiotics, both at the Federal & State levels? Are they being violated?
Finally, what requirements need to be met in Europe to allow for providing abx to animals? Maybe we should adopt Those. This issue could very well have an impact on export sales of meats from the U.S.
Posts: 1233 | From Dover, NH | Registered: Sep 2008
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sometimesdilly
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9982
posted
OOPS and sorry to LNetters, though not and never to IDSA.
i was wrong about the IDSA staying completely silent on the use of abx in animals.
the IDSA has at least signed onto the legislation (PAMTA) mentioned in the article i first posted.
Somehow i very much doubt that putting down the org's signature as a supporter on a piece of legislation that is going nowhere
means that the IDSA will be hunting down pig and cow farmers who prescribe long-term abx as aggressively as the org has gone after llmds.
posted
1st Thought Tincup....I do all the research in my family. I found out that me, my husband, and daughter have lyme.
But, anyways, my husband never researchs lyme, he depends on me......and he loves hearing your posts. He sometimes asks me...what did Tincup say??
He has a very dry sense of humor and he enjoys your sense of humor. Thanks for the laughs!!
2nd Thought I have known that the things they put in animals for money has always been dangerous to our health. My family thinks I am RADICAL for wanting to eat all organic.
Oh, to add on the cruelty to animals...my chiro has horses and is very into medicine and horses. He said that now that horses are bread for show, they are much bigger and bulkier. Their hoves can't handle the weight, so they have lots of problems. Now, people come along and mess with mother nature and they clip a nerve in the horse so he can't feel the pain on his foot....finally his hoof completely falls off. Then they are no longer any good.
So, cruelty to animals goes a long freakin' way!!
Shalome
Posts: 893 | From Florida | Registered: Dec 2008
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
fyi, sec. of agriculture is IOWA'S FORMER 8 YR. GOVERNOR TOM VILSACK! he's a decent man, and feel you folks should be contacting him with your concerns.
his chief of staff is iowa's former democratic party chief; JOHN NORRIS
HIS WIfe, JACKIE NORRIS, IS MICHELLE OBAMA'S CHIEF OF STAFF!!*******************************
many iowans went to dc and are somewhere out there on obama's team since iowa has been 1st stae to caucus/vote on FUTURE PRESIDENTS!!
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