Problems Popping Up When Chicken Sickens
Problems Popping Up When Chicken Sickens
July 19, 2000 (Atlanta) -- It is the main cause of bacterial stomach illness in the U.S., and now an FDA study estimates that a good number of infections caused by the bacteria Campylobacter may be resistant to a common class of antibiotics. The same class, the fluoroquinolones, is used to treat infections in chickens. The researchers suggest the bacteria may be developing resistance from this animal use, and the problem is passing on to humans. Two fluoroquinolones are currently approved for use in poultry, the FDA says: sarafloxacin and enrofloxacin.
The study, presented at an infectious diseases conference here, uses a mathematical model to predict the risk of developing a resistant Campylobacter infection from eating chickens drugged with fluoroquinolones. For 1998, the researchers estimated about two million cases of the food poisoning occurred, with perhaps 70% of them caused by contaminated chicken. About 5,000 of those cases may have been of the antibiotic-resistant variety, they say, with the patients undergoing fluoroquinolone treatment anyway. The bottom line: Some people sick with Campylobacter infections may be getting ineffective treatment.
It's studies like this one that have prompted some members of Congress to call for changes in the way antibiotics are used down on the farm. Last year, U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced the Preservation of Essential Antibiotics for Human Diseases Act. It would prevent the use of antibiotics in animals without disease unless drug companies could prove such a use would not, down the line, harm human health. "There's definitely a line in the sand being drawn," says Press Secretary Bridget Fisher. "The drug companies are not supportive of this."
But The Animal Health Institute, which represents those drug companies, says antibiotic resistance is a fact of life and a ban on farm use of the drugs is therefore unreasonable. "We'll be the first ones to say the use of antibiotics in animals or man -- particularly man -- will eventually lead to resistance in these organisms. It's just a fact of nature," says Richard Carnevale, DVM, vice-president of Regulatory, Scientific and International Affairs. "You have to remember these things are highly regulated. And to levy bans, we think, is going too far."
Problems Popping Up When Chicken Sickens
July 19, 2000 (Atlanta) -- It is the main cause of bacterial stomach illness in the U.S., and now an FDA study estimates that a good number of infections caused by the bacteria Campylobacter may be resistant to a common class of antibiotics. The same class, the fluoroquinolones, is used to treat infections in chickens. The researchers suggest the bacteria may be developing resistance from this animal use, and the problem is passing on to humans. Two fluoroquinolones are currently approved for use in poultry, the FDA says: sarafloxacin and enrofloxacin.
The study, presented at an infectious diseases conference here, uses a mathematical model to predict the risk of developing a resistant Campylobacter infection from eating chickens drugged with fluoroquinolones. For 1998, the researchers estimated about two million cases of the food poisoning occurred, with perhaps 70% of them caused by contaminated chicken. About 5,000 of those cases may have been of the antibiotic-resistant variety, they say, with the patients undergoing fluoroquinolone treatment anyway. The bottom line: Some people sick with Campylobacter infections may be getting ineffective treatment.
It's studies like this one that have prompted some members of Congress to call for changes in the way antibiotics are used down on the farm. Last year, U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced the Preservation of Essential Antibiotics for Human Diseases Act. It would prevent the use of antibiotics in animals without disease unless drug companies could prove such a use would not, down the line, harm human health. "There's definitely a line in the sand being drawn," says Press Secretary Bridget Fisher. "The drug companies are not supportive of this."
But The Animal Health Institute, which represents those drug companies, says antibiotic resistance is a fact of life and a ban on farm use of the drugs is therefore unreasonable. "We'll be the first ones to say the use of antibiotics in animals or man -- particularly man -- will eventually lead to resistance in these organisms. It's just a fact of nature," says Richard Carnevale, DVM, vice-president of Regulatory, Scientific and International Affairs. "You have to remember these things are highly regulated. And to levy bans, we think, is going too far."