ANIMAL ANTIBIOTICS
Why did the chicken take the antibiotic? Not because she was sick, necessarily, but because some other birds in her beak-by-giblet poultry barn were sick. Which isn’t surprising, considering their less-than-sanitary living conditions.
Whenever a few birds show symptoms of respiratory infections, which they often do, it has long been common practice to just medicate the lot of them by putting an antibiotic such as Bayer’s Baytril into their water.Continue Reading Chickening out: Medicating livestock only threatens humans

May 12, 2005
According to recently published research in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, “The goal of the present study was to assess the contribution of real-time molecular typing, used alone or with clinical surveillance, to the prompt identification of clusters of Campylobacter enteritis.
“Potential poultry sources were sought by comparing the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis genotypes of human and fresh whole retail chicken isolates collected during the same study period.”
“Among 183 human isolates, 82 (45%) had unique genotypes, 72 (39%) represented 26 clusters of 2 to 7 isolates each, and 29 (16%) represented three clusters of 8 to 11 isolates each.Continue Reading Sources other than chickens important in human campylobacteriosis

Antimicrobial resistance in bacteria is an emerging and increasing threat to human health. Physicians should be aware that antimicrobial resistance is increasing in foodborne pathogens and that patients who are prescribed antibiotics are at increased risk for acquiring antimicrobial resistant foodborne infections. In addition, “[i]increased frequency of treatment failures for acute illiness and increased severity of infection may be manifested by prolonged duration of illness, increased frequency of bloodstream infections, increased hospitalization or increased mortality.”[1]
The use of antimicrobial agents in the feed of food animals is estimated by the FDA to be over 100 million pounds per year. Estimates range from 36% to 70% of all antibiotics produced in the United Sates are used in a food animal feed or in prophylactic treatment to prevent animal disease. The use in of antibiotics is thought to promote growth and to prevent disease on in beef, pig, turkey and chicken production as well as fish farms and some fruit and vegetable farming.[2]Continue Reading Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacteria

Amy L. Becker Staff Writer
Apr 1, 2005 (CIDRAP News) — A study of antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter levels on retail chicken products suggests that the pathogen lingers in chickens long after antibiotic use among the birds is stopped.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University found that sizable percentages of retail chicken samples from two large companies had antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter on them even though the companies had stopped treating their flocks with the antibiotic in question a year earlier.
In addition, the researchers found that chicken samples from those two companies were more likely to carry antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter on them than were samples from two companies that marketed their products as completely antibiotic-free.Continue Reading Drug-resistant bacteria linger on chicken, study finds