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Group calls for global ban on poultry antibiotic
Story Date: 8/12/2013
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Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 8/12/13
A group of scientists is calling for a worldwide ban on an antibiotic that they say is responsible for a “staggering” amount of human deaths as well as related health care costs.
Peter Collignon, of the Canberra (Australia) Hospital, was the lead author of a letter to the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. In the letter, titled “Human Deaths and Third-Generation Cephalosporin use in Poultry, Europe,” he and three co-authors (one scientist from Denmark and two from Canada) argue that the use of antibiotics to treat E. coli infections in young poultry contributes to antimicrobial drug resistance in humans.
They studied data from consumers in the Netherlands infected with E. coli and found that third-generation cephalosporin-resistant E. coli (G3CREC) was related to 21 deaths and more than 900 “hospital bed-days.”
Based on that information, they estimated that about 1,500 deaths and an increase of more than 67,200 days in the hospital are related to the use of cephalosporin and other antibiotics in the poultry industry.
“To more accurately estimate the associated increased deaths among persons resulting from third-generation cephalosporin use in poultry, detailed data from more countries is essential,” they wrote. “However, we already know that G3CREC is rapidly rising in many countries, and in Europe, the infection rate is likely to have tripled from 2007 to 2012. … [t]he ongoing use of these antimicrobial drugs in mass therapy and prophylaxis should be urgently examined and stopped, particularly in poultry, not only in Europe, but worldwide.”
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