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posted by takyon on Friday February 02 2018, @06:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the chicken-not-so-little dept.

The Guardian reports that according to a Bureau of Investigative Journalism study, colistin, an "antibiotic of last resort," is used by the tonnes by Indian farms to make the poultry gain weight a little bit faster. And all of this is perfectly legal. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls antibiotic resistance "a major threat to public health".

Another reason to eat less meat I guess. Like we needed one.


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  • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @07:49PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @07:49PM (#632127)

    "Colistin is a decades-old drug that fell out of favor in human medicine..." [wikipedia.org]

    When people once again invest more time and effort, and yes, money into research, than into marketing and PR sob stories such as this one - then the problem will once again get a solution. Not one problem in history got solved by whining. Not ever.

    We, the humans, tend to get what we ask for. We wanted an age of chemistry - now we're living in it, with all the good and the bad that entail. Antibiotics are among the fruit of that age. But now we made it fashionable to clamor for "all-natural ways" of doing stuff... well, dying from an infection is quite natural.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 02 2018, @08:26PM (5 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday February 02 2018, @08:26PM (#632144) Journal

    Nationa and Li (2009) stated, “Colistin is a 50 year-old antibiotic that is being used increasingly as a ‘last-line’ therapy to treat infections caused by MDR Gram-negative bacteria, when essentially no other options are available” (Para 1).

    Biswas, Brunel, Dubas, Reynaud-Gaubert, and Rolain (2012) concurred with this statement. “The emergence of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria that cause nosocomial infections is a growing problem worldwide. Colistin was first introduced in 1952 and was used until the early 1980s for the treatment of infections caused by Gram-negative bacilli… It is probable that colistin will be the 'last-line' therapeutic drug against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens in the 21st century” (Abstract).

    So perhaps one should hold off on trusting Wikipedia as an authoritative source of information without thoroughly investigating it yourself, the way any professor would tell you. And the rest of your statements do not follow logically from your quotation at all. But in any event, unnecessary antibiotic resistance from dosing animals without medical cause is a concern to anyone who works with any phase of epidemiology who has half a brain.

    REFERENCES

    Biswas, S., Brunel, J., Dubus, J., Reynaud-Gilbert, M., and Rolain, J. (2012). Colistin: an update on the antibiotic of the 21st century. Expert review of anti-infective therapy, 10(8), 917-934. https://doi.org/10.1586/eri.12.78 [doi.org]

    Nation, R. L., & Li, J. (2009). Colistin in the 21st Century. Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases, 22(6), 535–543. http://doi.org/10.1097/QCO.0b013e328332e672 [doi.org]

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    • (Score: 1) by DECbot on Friday February 02 2018, @09:56PM (4 children)

      by DECbot (832) on Friday February 02 2018, @09:56PM (#632188) Journal

      But in any event, unnecessary antibiotic resistance from dosing animals without medical cause is a concern to anyone who works with any phase of epidemiology who has half a brain.

      I think I see the problem. Since when has having less than half a brain stop someone from doing something stupid? Secondly, why do you assume these farmers have studied epidemiology?

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      • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 02 2018, @11:31PM (3 children)

        by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday February 02 2018, @11:31PM (#632243) Journal

        They're using medication. Animal or human, OTC or not, one should have half a brain before buying and using medications. That's one of the reasons that physicians, veterinarians, and the like are licensed. That's why medications have approved uses, and at least in the U.S. if you're not a physician you don't use a medication off-label. (And I'd like to know where using this is on-label for veterinary use.... It may be, it would be interesting to find out. And if it is legal to use OTC, I wonder what mechanism could have medicine reserve it back again. It a Vet prescribed it, they should be questioned as to Why.)

        But anyway, if they ain't working with an illness (epidemiology)... why are they using antibiotics? And if they haven't studied what to use and how to use it, why are they being allowed to use it? When doing so may eventually cause someone's death because the drug of last resort won't work any more in a human? Because chickens.

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        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @11:34PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @11:34PM (#632244)

          Heh, "one SHOULD have half a brain..."

          Yeah no kidding, but the reality is that most people don't learn squat about the products they use. Find the basic daily recommended dose or whatever and then never read about it again. I'll let you do a little research on why farmers pump their livestock with antibiotics.

        • (Score: 1) by DECbot on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:56AM (1 child)

          by DECbot (832) on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:56AM (#632278) Journal

          This is exactly my argument. People with half a brain realize that the prescribing or administering of an antibiotic of last resort should be restricted to people who are trained in the risks and licensed to do so. The problem is people without half a brain have access to such a drug and thus use it without out a thought of the long term consequences or they are intentionally disregarding the consequences for a short term gain. It is documented that livestock gain weight faster if fed antibiotics and since fat chickens are more profitable than skinny chickens any associated risks of administering antibiotics are thrown out the window. So, yes, people should be questioning everyone involved why these chickens are being fed--but the problem is this is India and any Indian with half a brain has immigrated elsewhere (/sarcasm). This is India and due to their large population they will statistically have a large number of half-brained people. Education is the solution to this, but because of cultural practices education isn't universally available and thus the problem perpetuates. So, on a per capita ratio, there is a shortage of trained and licensed vets/practitioners asking the farmers 'why' and a shortage of outraged citizens demanding change. Thus, the population of half-brained people never diminish and the ones aspire to raise chickens are statistically less likely to be corrected for following a risky practice. From the Indian farmer's perspective, the world's busybodies can go fuck themselves because he needs to raise plump chickens quickly otherwise farmer Rahul down the street will drive him out of business with his medicated oversized chickens. Without the structure in place to regulate farming practices and the reliable enforcement of those regulations by ethical people, this will continue because it is profitable. And the demand for such a structure is lacking because of the lack of education to inform the people of the long term risks of these practices.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 02 2018, @08:35PM

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday February 02 2018, @08:35PM (#632149) Journal

    Oh, wait. I blamed Wikipedia in error thanks to your selective quotation where you did not quote (or perhaps read) the very next sentence. It remains one of the last-resort antibiotics for multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Acinetobacter.[1] NDM-1 metallo-β-lactamase multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae have also shown susceptibility to colistin.

    That stuff that's mentioned.... stuff that usually isn't so bad. But if it hits an immunocompromised person each can be very bad news with sepsis risk. And two of them apparently have reported resistances to Carbapenem class antibiotics (another last-resort antibi series).

    So, sorry, Wikipedia for doubting you! (But it still shouldn't be used for primary cited research as OP was trying to do... Even though I'll do that myself sometimes. We all make mistakes....)

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