Hi everyone,
Today, we are going to discuss the effect of antibiotics in dairy farm animals on humans' guts. For the past couple of months, I've been devoting myself to write articles regarding animals but none of it covers anything about dairy farm animals. When we are talking about dairy farming, they were a subclass of agriculture which concerns with the production of a few dairy products such as milk and any products which can be derived from milk (cheese, yoghurt and butter). In the past, farm animals have been introduced in a few places (such as Hawaii) in order to supply some extra foods to satisfy population demand. Of course, with it, there are a few noted consequences such as the extinction of a few exotic bird species in Hawaii, but we are not going to discuss that particular topic in this article.
When we are talking about dairy farm animals, antibiotic-laden animal's meat is one of the most controversial issues that has been discussed on various occasions within the scientific community. The emergence of a few strain of bacteria which are resistant to a specific kind of antibiotic has been a global concern, as it can reduce the quality of life of an individual who has been infected by the said bacteria. A few years ago, some of the most common types of antibiotics for treating dairy farm animals can be bought over the counter, so it is difficult to control the rate of antibiotic utilisation on farm animals. The most interesting thing about this particular antibiotic is, it is not only used for treating or preventing any dairy farm animals from getting a specific kind of disease related to the antibiotic being used but they were also used to promote animal's growth.
In the 1940s, it was found that the rate of growth of chickens can be accelerated just by adding a low dose concentration of antibiotics which are made from Streptomyces aureofaciens. Before the beneficial effect of the antibiotic towards chicken's growth was discovered, scientists back then thought that the main factor to stimulate protein growth within the animal's meat is vitamin B12. They were using some liver extract to nourish a few chickens with vitamin B12 while checking out other possible sources which can produce a substantial amount of the vitamin B12. The experiment was carried out in a laboratory which has been producing antibiotics from Streptomyces auerofaciens.
While checking out the vat which has been used to process those bacteria, they realised that the bacterial carcasses produce a significant amount of vitamin B12 which has about the same concentration when compared with the liver extract. To cut the story short, after a series of testing has been done to compare the growth rate between the chicken which has been given some liver extracts and the chicken which has been given a shot of a dead Streptomyces aureofaciens, they found that the latter grew 24% more quickly than the first one. Assuming, if the concentration of vitamin B12 in the liver extract and the dead bacteria are about the same, the difference in the rate of growth should be negligible; but it is not. They discovered later that the growth acceleration was caused by some antibiotic residue which can be traced within the bacterial carcasses. That finding has opened up to a new domain of antibiotic usage which makes it easier for farmers or any related industry to produce a mass dairy farm animals to maximise income.
The required dose for promoting growth was quite low so they were considered a reasonable investment to maximise potential earning in a short period of time. I mean, just by spending a little bit of money on antibiotics, you can produce a faster-growing chicken which would allow you to produce twice or thrice the number of chickens to be sold within a specific period of time. This causes the widespread use of antibiotics in dairy farm animals which result in the emergence of a few antibiotic-resistant bacterial species. Only by then, the use of antibiotics in farm animals was banned or restricted by several countries in order to control the emergence of the resistance species while making a decent amount of income from the dairy farm animals.
According to a paper which has been published by Giguere et al regarding veterinary medicine, there are a few hypotheses which have been made to explain how the usage of antibiotics can lead to growth acceleration among dairy farm animals:
- Stimulation of intestinal synthesis of vitamins by bacteria.
- Reduction in total numbers of bacteria in the intestinal tract with a lowering of competition between microorganisms and host animals for nutrients.
- Inhibition of harmful bacteria which may be mildly pathogenic or toxin-producing.
- Inhibition of bacterial urease.
- Improved energy efficiency of the gut.
- Inhibition of bacterial cholyltaurine hydrolase activity.
- Nutrient sparing.
- Improved nutrient absorption from morphological changes to the small intestinal epithelium.
- Modification of intestinal enzyme activity.
- Reduced immune stimulation.
- Modification of rumen microbial metabolism.
One of the ways to control the rate of growth of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria is to restrict the accessibility of a specific kind of antibiotics from the farmer's or rancher's reach. Last year (2017) a rule has been enacted which would require any ranchers or farmers to get an antibiotic prescription from veterinarians to prevent antibiotics abuse cases. I mean, if an antibiotic-resistant bacterium strain was created by the antibiotic overuse, they can stay dormant inside the animal's meat before it will be ingested by the other animals or humans for that matter which can lead to a few medical consequences which include persistent food-borne diseases caused by an antibiotic-resistance strain of bacterium.
The problem with the law enacted to control the antibiotic overuse among ranchers is that there are a lot of loopholes which can be used in order to make the antibiotics, even with restriction, accessible to them. The primary focus of treating diseases is always disease prevention (prevention is better than cure) therefore by asking for a prescription of antibiotics from veterinarians with the notion of disease prevention is not wrong in theory. Even if the law forbids the use of antibiotics for growth promotion, ranchers can still be prescribed with antibiotics by a veterinarian for disease prevention claiming growth acceleration as an unintended consequence. Pretty clever, huh? There is no official documentation made by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding large-scale antibiotic usage making it difficult for us to measure the extent of antibiotic abuse carried out by ranchers and any-related industrial farms.
If you are familiar with antibiotics, then you would know that overprescribing them can cause a whole lot of damage than good to an individual. There are some diseases which are caused by antibiotics overprescription, one of them would be an infection caused by a bacterium called the Clostridium difficile. Eating an improperly cooked meat of a farm animal which has been eating foods laden with antibiotics can affect humans in some ways. First of all, the residue of antibiotics which have become a part of the meat can alter the microbial population in a human's gut, secondly, if there are any antibiotic-resistant bacteria which have been lying dormant in the meat, they could have posed detrimental effects to the human's overall health.
A paper which has been published by Francesco Strati et al in 2017 has concluded that any factors which could affect the population of an individual gut's microbiome can potentially cause some social and behavioural changes which are typically seen in a patient which has been diagnosed with a neurocognitive disability called the Autism Spectrum Disorder. There are a lot of ASD cases which are speculated to be caused by the imbalance of the gut's bacterial population. People who were born through Caesarean section rather than the normal natural birth would have the tendency to develop an unhealthy guts microenvironment as they were not exposed to the maternal's bacteria as they were passing through the vaginal canal.
This implies the importance of having a sufficient and healthy gut's bacteria in managing our daily physiological processes which might get interrupted without them. Not to mentioned, a decline in the gut's bacteria population is associated with an increased risk of getting an infection so eating a meat which contained both antibiotics residue and any strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria can pretty much increase the risk of an individual getting an infection.
There have been a few studies which suggested that the application of an intravenous antibiotic can reduce the chances of a bacteria to develop resistant strains compared to the oral antibiotic. This is due to the fact that an IV antibiotic will be injected directly into the bloodstream thus causing fewer effects to the gut's bacterial population. However, it should be noted that the process of getting injections to a large number of dairy farm animals would be expensive and time-consuming. It's practically irrelevant compared to the cost incurred if you will just crush some antibiotic pills and mix it up with the animal's food which is much convenient and cheaper.
We're quite in a dilemma when it comes to deciding whether or not it is beneficial for us to stop antibiotic treatment or just continue with a little modification to the existing regimens/protocols. As a consumer, we don't really have much choice and the only thing that we can do to minimise the risk of getting an infection by an antibiotic-resistant bacterium would be to cook meats properly. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should review the current law regarding antibiotic use in dairy farm animals to reduce antibiotic resistance crisis.
References and further reading materials
- Antibiotics in Meat Could Be Damaging Our Guts. Retrieved on June 2nd, 2018.
- Growth Promotion. Retrieved on June 2nd, 2018.
- Antimicrobial Resistance: Its Surveillance, Impact, and Alternative Management Strategies in Dairy Animals. Retrieved on June 2nd, 2018.
- The Hidden Effects of Dairy Farming on Public and Environmental Health in the Netherlands, India, Ethiopia, and Uganda, Considering the Use of Antibiotics and Other Agro-chemicals. Retrieved on June 2nd, 2018.
- The Antibiotic Resistance Crisis. Retrieved on June 2nd, 2018.
- New evidences on the altered gut microbiota in autism spectrum disorders. Retrieved on June 2nd, 2018.
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My family and I moved to Florida a couple weeks ago. I’m glad raw milk is legal in this state. We went to the farmers market today and it was awesome being able to talk to the local farmers and establish a relationship with them. Raw milk from local farmers is the best.
Why would it be illegal to buy milk in any state?
Regulation is the reason why. The FDA or whom ever is in charge thinks raw milk is dangerous if it is not pasteurized. Sure if you drink raw milk from sickly animals that have been on antibodies and eat corn and crap, it is not good. But raw milk from grass fed healthy cows is the best nutrition out there.
This is nice from you, chloroform. Bacteria like E.coli, salmonella are usually found in raw meat, a reason we have to ensure we boil meat properly. The tapeworm, Taenia saginata is commonly known as the beef tapeworm and might take long to die if the meat is infected by it.
If it dies, good. If it doesn't, there's a problem. The consumer ingests it, it begins to grow and reproduce. When it gets to a point, the victim will start passing out tapeworms in their faeces... I think it's better to stop here and not proceed...
This is better not experienced...
Nice work, chloro...
No problem @pearlumie. Thank you for your feedback.
You made some great expositions in this articles. The first time I get to know that antibiotics can be used to treat diseases as well as promoting growth was during a teaching session in secondary agricultural science class. And I was really amazed.
However, your robust argument in this post on the dangers of such practices , is well appreciated. Thanks
Regards.
@eurogee of @euronation and @steemstem communities
Thanks, @eurogee. Glad you like it.
Do you know that formalin is used to preserve chicken in some countries? Yes the formalin used to preserve dead bodies in the mortuary.
The things producers do to maximize profit at least cost is not exactly maximizing consumers utility like it should. The Agric sector should be cleansed of this act, they can’t tell me they don’t know it’s effect on health and environment of consumers
Thanks for sharing
It's really sad Formalin?
Now I'm scared of eating meat, thanks to @chloroform and @florae (smiles)
Well, you shouldn't. Hahaha.
Ok, now that's quite bad. I think the way our potential food sources were preserved need to be strictly monitored by the respective government.
I think the use of antibiotics by diary farmers, should be greatly and strictly controlled. This is one of the reason why NAFDAC banned the importations of diary product into Nigeria . Well done @chloroform
Really? So there were no import dairy products in Nigeria?
Lol. Officially I would say no, but smugglers do, however, the smugglers are always at battle with custom officers enforcing the ban. Good one @chloroform
This is nice, part of the reasons why colostrum is not fit for consumption because it contains large amount of antibiotics which can cause antibiotics resistance, if consumed frequently.
Nice to know that @elizabethh. Thanks for your feedback.
Nice article, main reason why colostrum from animals is not fit for consumption because of the large quantity of antibiotics in it, which can lead to antibiotics resistance.
@choroform thanks for your exposition on this topic. The use of antibiotics will make bacteria present in livestock more resistance, thereby making the use of such antibiotics in humans less effective.
An example is fluoroquinolones used in animals for treating intestinal infections also used in human for treating urinary tract infections.
Pretty good example. Thanks for your input @mikmercy.
Isn't there the choice of buying meat from animals that haven't been doused in antibiotics? At least in some countries?
Is it? I didn't know that? Do they declare the type of meat they were selling?
I was genuinely asking, I don't know either :D ... But I imagine in the US you can find meat that has been minimally treated, either through stores or direct contact with the animal farmer, like people do with organic produce.
I'm not really familiar with information regarding buying or selling a minimally treated meat. I guess people who do know this kind of stuff is the one who has been eating organic meals.