These are notes on the talk that Tamar F. Barlam, M.D. of Keep Antibiotics Working gave at the ICCI office in Des Moines today.

As we have previously learned, she confirmed that an Inter-agency Government Task force has stated that antibiotic resistance is "a growing menace to all people." and without action, treatments for common infections "will become increasingly limited and expansive, and in some cases nonexistent."

There is, however, good news.  The antibiotic resistant genes are a burden to bacteria and will be discarded if not needed, so when antibiotic use decreases, as it has in many European countries, antibiotic resistant bacteria decrease as well, and the remaining strains can be controlled with antibiotics.

Until then, however, antibiotic resistant microbes will continue to be a growing problem.  There is documentation that microbes that have become resistant to one antibiotic soon develop resistance to other antibiotics, even in the absence of those other antibiotics.  They also become resistant to heavy metals such as mercury and arsenic.

The antibiotic resistant microbes have been shown to move directly from the animals to their handlers and on into the community at large.  The largest concentration of microbes will be in the animals, the next largest in the farmer and his family and less yet in the nearby urban community.  In Nebraska a 12 year old boy had a strain that was resistant to 13 different antibiotics.  It was traced directly to his father's animals.

The genes are found in plastids and these plastids can be transferred from one species to another, moving, for example, from Salmonella to E. coli. The resistant microbes have been shown to move from the building off the farm into the water and are being transported by streams.

Antibiotic resistant microbes mean more expensive and longer treatments for humans the annual additional medical cost runs into the billions of dollars. Healthy animals are receiving more that eight times the amount of antibiotics that are being used for humans.  95% of the antibiotics fed to swine are also used for human sickness. Close confinement means that if a few animals are sick, all of them have to be treated.

A recent study showed that one in five ground meat samples had Salmonella and over 80% of poultry for human consumption is contaminated with Campylobacter.

Many of you may have had the experience of talking to a CAFO owner who will say he doesn't feed antibiotics to his animals.  One participant told us a feed salesman told her if she raised chickens without feeding them antibiotics they would all die. Because of the generally filthy conditions confinement animals live in, antibiotics are probably necessary for them to survive.

One woman related her experience of talking to a CAFO operator who told her he didn't use antibiotics. She asked if the antibiotics were in the feed and the farmer was thinking only of injections as antibiotic use.  Dr. Barlam said you have to know how to ask the right questions. One is, what percentage of your animals never need antibiotics?  We think an antibiotic is an antibiotic is an antibiotic.  They think, I'm using it to protect my animals, not as a growth stimulant.  As a matter of fact there has only been a 5-6% decrease in the use of antibiotics for growth.

We are being told consumers just want cheap meat.  That is not true.  We have also been told that eliminating non-therapeutic uses for antibiotics would mean much more expensive meat.  A National Academy of Sciences Study showed that phasing out antibiotics would mean only a 4%-$10 increase in the price of meat per person per year.

The truth is that there are not enough farmers to supply the demand for wholesome meat products.

Pass the word!

Peggy Murdock