One of the urgent problems of the twenty-first century is to provide the world’s growing population with safe food. The efforts and resources of many highly developed countries are directed to solving this problem.
Various approaches to overcoming the crisis of the food problem of the world are being discussed and developed, one of which is the use of biologically active substances in agricultural production, in particular antibiotics.
Antibiotics are the largest class of pharmaceutical compounds that are synthesized primarily by microbial cells. Anti-fungal agents, anticancer drugs, and alkaloids belong to this class.
The cost of world production of antibiotics in the 90s was approximately $ 8 billion, of which almost half of the cost was made up of the four most common groups of antibiotics – penicillin, cephalosporins, tetracyclines, and erythromycins.
In view of the enormous socio-economic importance of these drugs, the research work on the search for new forms, their testing and implementation is steadily growing. By the end of the 80s. about 5500 antibiotic substances became known, of which only 100 were on sale.
From a commercial point of view, penicillin, cephalosporins, and tetracyclines were the most common. However, since the 1960s. due to the increased difficulty in obtaining effective antibiotics, as well as their widespread use, there is a problem of resistance to the most used compounds in a large number of pathogenic bacteria.
The main use of antibiotics was in medical practice, while another important area of their use in agriculture, especially animal husbandry. This is due to the fact that, firstly, in industrial production, a large number of animals are kept in relatively small areas, which determines the spread of various infections.
Secondly, the cultivation and keeping of animals involve drug treatment. Thirdly, large-scale antibiotic prophylaxis is also necessary when transporting animals to relieve stress.
The increase in meat and milk production is largely determined by the state of cattle reproduction. In many countries, gastrointestinal diseases of calves are a serious problem in livestock farming. In the USA, calf death as a result of these diseases is 15%, in France – 7%, in Germany – up to 12% of the total number of births.
In Australia, gastrointestinal diseases are the leading cause of death in new-born calves. In Russia, in recent years, the incidence and mortality of farm animals have not decreased. The incidence of various animal species ranges from 42.7 to 51.2% of the herd turnover, that is, almost every second animal is sick, especially the incidence of young farm animals has increased.
History of Sub-Therapeutic Antibiotics For Livestock
Lessons from experience in many countries, livestock workers add antibiotic in subtherapeutic concentrations (in doses lower than those used to treat infectious diseases) to accelerate the growth of farm animals, using antibiotics as growth simulators.
The mechanisms by which ASR affect the nutrition of animals and contribute to an increase in their mass are still unclear. After the appearance in the 1950s, sub-therapeutic antibiotics as growth stimulators were introduced globally for planned use in industrial breeding of farm animals, regardless of the state of animal health or the risk of bacterial infections. In many countries, this has led to an “explosive” increase in the use of antibiotics.
For example, in the USA, the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics as growth stimulants increased for 50 times between 1951 and 1978 (from 110 tons to 5580 tons), while the use of antibiotics for treating diseases in humans and animals increased by only 10 times.
During this time, many strains of bacteria isolated from humans and animals that were previously sensitive to antibiotics became resistant.
Initially, almost any antibiotics could be used as growth stimulants, and sub-therapeutic doses of drugs were used. in the UK in 1968, concerns about a possible side effect on people’s health led to the creation of the Joint Committee on the Use of Antibiotics in Industrial Livestock and Veterinary Medicine, which was chaired by M.M. Swann. a subsequent report recommended that antibiotics not be used as growth stimulants if they were used as therapeutic drugs in medicine or veterinary medicine.
If they were associated with the formation of cross-resistance to antibiotics used in humans. This report was the basis for the development of the rational use of antibiotics policies and related regulations in many Western European countries.
However, the global use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics as growth stimulators continued until 1986, when Sweden banned their use. Over the next 10 years, there was growing concern over the continued expansion of antibiotic resistance.
Researchers have found that the use of antibiotics in farm animals can pose risks to human health due to the spread of resistance to these drugs through the food chain.
In particular, the researchers showed that the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics as growth stimulators is a danger to human health due to the formation and spread of cross-resistance to antibiotics used to treat people.
Therefore, some countries have stopped registering certain antibiotics as growth promoters. The threat of antibiotic resistance has also caused a serious reaction from consumers, as evidenced by the recommendations on the rational use of antibiotics published by the EU Committee on Economic and Social Policy.
Many countries have assessed the risks associated with the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics as growth stimulators and have shown that these drugs pose a threat to human health. since 1997, the WHO has been considering the risk of sub-therapeutic antibiotics for public health and recommends that the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics be stopped immediately or in the near future.
Since 2006, all growth stimulation subtherapeutic antibiotics have been banned for use in EU countries based on the recommendations of the Scientific Working Committee.
In the WHO European Region, a number of countries are not yet resistant to antibiotics in terms of food safety 13 have banned the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics, as has been done by EU Member States and countries that bring their food safety regulations in line with EU rules.
In the EU countries (in particular in Denmark), a study was conducted on the effect of discontinuation of the use of subtherapeutic antibiotics on the incidence of antibiotic resistance.
WHO has assembled a multidisciplinary international group of experts to analyze the potential impact on human and animal health, as well as on the environment, livestock products and the national economy after Denmark discontinued use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics in the meat, dairy and food industries, including cattle.
Among other facts, the group found that the reservoir of animals as sources of enterococci resistant to drugs used as growth stimulators decreased significantly. From 1992 to 2008, the use of antibiotics to produce one kilogram of cattle decreased in Denmark by more than 50%. This change was a consequence of the implementation of policies aimed at stopping the use of antibacterial drugs as growth stimulators.
The use of avoparcin as growth stimulator in farm animals in Europe led to the emergence and spread of vancomycin-resistant enterococci as the for normal micro-flora of these animals, as well as on meat products obtained from these animals.
At the same time, the appearance of vancomycin-resistant enterococci as part of the normal micro-flora in humans was noted, although vancomycin was used in hospitals on a very limited scale.
This happened as a result of the formation of cross-resistance to avoparcin and vancomycin and the transfer of enterococci resistant to vancomycin from animals to humans through foods derived from animals that received avoparcin.
In 1997, the use of avoparcin was banned in EU countries. it was subsequently shown that this measure led to a decrease in the frequency of detection of vancomycin-resistant enterococci both among farm animals and among people significantly increased.
This shows that changes in the policy of antibiotic use did not have a negative impact on cattle production in the long term.
Lessons learned show, that the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics as growth stimulators can be stopped, and the risk to human health can be eliminated without any harm to farm animals or damage to the economy of food production.
Countries should strive to limit the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics in animal husbandry, improving animal health through bio-safety and disease prevention measures, as well as good sanitation and good process management. Antibiotics should only be used to treat cattle and only at therapeutic doses.
Use of Sub-Therapetutic Antibiotics in Livestock
According to various estimates, from 63 to 240 thousand tons of antibiotics are used annually at agricultural enterprises around the world. No matter how different the assessments are, one thing is obvious: antibiotics are widely used in animals – on a scale comparable to the use of such drugs in humans. According to forecasts, antibiotic consumption will only increase in the future.
To stop the excessive and useless consumption of anti-microbials, it is necessary to combine efforts at the international level – there is no other way to solve this problem. The more we use antibiotics, the more drug-resistant bacteria appear and the more difficult it is to treat a wide variety of diseases.
The use of antimicrobial agents in cows includes therapeutic treatment (in case of illness), treatment of a group of cows if at least one of them has a disease, and also, in some EU countries and the USA, preventive therapy for the prevention of diseases.
In addition, sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics are added to feed and water to accelerate the growth and fattening of animals. As you already know, in Europe, this practice was banned in 2006, and in June 2017, the same ban was introduced in the United States.
In modern dairy farms around the world, mastitis is the most common infectious disease, therefore dairy cows receive the highest doses of antibiotics precisely because of mastitis. Now, no one doubts the fact that there is a correlation between the use of antibiotics and the resistance of bacteria.
In regions where antibiotics are used more often, there are often more resistant bacteria, which means that infections are more difficult to treat. There is also strong evidence that the use of antibiotics to treat animals correlates with the emergence of resistant bacteria that infect humans. There is a problem, and it must be solved.
In the long run, the overuse of antibiotics in livestock production also poses a risk to food production: the growing resistance of bacteria that infect animals will lead to increased mortality, which in turn means a threat to global food security and farm profitability. In the case of severe infectious diseases that are not amenable to any treatment, farmers can lose whole herds.
Importance of Responsible Antibiotic Use
There is no reason to argue about the dangers of having antibiotics. Antibiotics commonly used in veterinary medicine: imprint or prevention of mastitis, respiratory infections and infectious diseases in cattle. In sub-therapeutic amounts, antibiotics are used as feed additives to stimulate the growth of animals, and their residues can be found in foods of animal origin.
Antibiotics remain the main component of therapy in agricultural veterinary medicine. Recently, many new drugs have appeared on the market.
A fundamental study of their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, as well as the location of pathogenic agents in animals, revealed some interesting facts. One of the most discussed issues is the question of the effectiveness of antibiotics in animals.
Animal health is not only a key component of their well-being, but also the most important factor affecting production efficiency. In addition, the world is faced with the need to address the issue of food security and the growing need for protein from an ever-increasing global population. To feed the world’s population, by 2050, 70% more animal proteins will be needed than now.
Finally, there is an even more important factor: for the health of the world population, it is simply necessary to maintain the effectiveness of antimicrobial agents. It is terrible to even imagine what awaits us if infectious diseases no longer respond to treatment.
That is why, it is very important to give antibiotics, even the sub-therapeutic ones with caution. If we give the sub-therapeutic antibiotics in reasonable doses and with caution, we will maintain their effectiveness.
According to the community of concerned scientists, about 70% of all antibiotics available in the United States go to feed healthy livestock and poultry. In general, around the world, about 50% of these drugs are not used to improve human health, but to increase profits in animal husbandry.
With regular consumption of antibiotics, animals develop tolerance to these substances. Therefore, a person who eats their meat also increases resistance to these drugs. The result is an ever-increasing antibiotic resistance in the entire population.
Because of this, the number of super-bugs that do not respond to antibiotics is constantly increasing, as well as the number of people whom these drugs no longer help.
In 1998, the European Union banned the use of antibiotics to increase livestock productivity. Due to this, the tolerance of people and animals to these drugs in Europe gradually began to decline.
Even 30 years ago, the US Food Safety Authority (FDA) also tried to ban the use of sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics in livestock, but this initiative was suppressed by pharmaceutical and agricultural companies.
The US Department of Agriculture, acting in the interests of industrialists, was unable to move from its position of using antibiotics in animal husbandry, despite numerous warnings from health authorities around the world, as a result of which the number of super-bacteria continued to grow steadily from year to year.
What do we have today? We are everywhere attacked by powerful and invulnerable armada of deadly bacteria – NDM-1, MRSA, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, which are resistant to most antibiotics.
These medicines, which were once the real saviors of mankind, today are in most cases completely useless. And while animals and birds will be stuffed with such preparations, the meat of which is used by humans, this catastrophic tendency will continue, developing exponentially.
Summary
As was mentioned in the article, in sub-therapeutic amounts, antibiotics are used as feed additives to stimulate the growth of animals, and their residues can be found in foods of animal origin.
It is good for farmers, because they can effectively increase the production of cattle and gain more profit, but in a long-term plan it may be very harmful.
This action affects both livestock and humans. First of all, while giving sub-therapeutic amounts of antibiotics to cattle, farmers make them less resistible to viruses, meaning, that if the time comes and they get thick, antibiotics will not be effective against the illness.
It is the same which humans as well. In cattle farming, sub-therapeutic amounts of antibiotics have effect on cow’s milk and meat. These are the products consumed by humans as well.
If the products have sub-therapeutic antibiotics in it, after consuming them, humans will also be resistant to different kind of antibiotics, meaning that it will harder for us to fight off various mutated viruses as well.