Meat + Poultry - September 2006 - 63

For the Record
September 2006

Straight talk about antibiotic use in food animal production presented by ALPHARMA Inc., Animal Health

CONFUSED ON ANTIBIOTICS?
YOU'RE IN GOOD COMPANY
conﬁrm ... nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in
agricultural animals contributes to ... antibioticresistant bacterial infections in people...."
Well, no, Senators.
The mistake here is an oft-committed one
by people - reasonable nevertheless - who may unfortunately have failed to pay
Case in point: Chicken and Campylobacter
attention in freshman science
Secret packing plant videotaping and sensationalized media
class: Correlation does not
reports have conditioned today's consumers to believe eating
equal causation.
chicken puts them at a high risk for food poisoning, particuIt's a theme throughout
larly from Campylobacter. Yet a 2001 study that backtracked
the antibiotics debate just
the chicken-consumption patterns of Campylobacter-infected
reiterated again in a recent
patients in the United States, New Zealand, Denmark and the
review by German molecular
United Kingdom discovered that eating or handling chicken
microbiologist Trudy Wasactually reduced the odds of suﬀering the condition.
senaar, in the journal Critical
Why then does chicken get such criticism? It's a classic case
Reviews in Microbiology.
of mistaking correlation with causation: Most studies blaming
To understand the
chicken as a risk factor failed to consider where the chicken
negative - and the
was prepared and eaten - eating outside the home has regupositive - eﬀects of antibilarly been associated with higher risks of cross contamination,
otics in animals, Wassenaar
inadequate cooking and mishandling vs. eating at home, all
writes, it's not good enough
important factors in assigning relative food-poisoning risks.
to look just at the circumOnce researchers control for venue, the type of food becomes
stantial evidence of how such
coincidental.
usage can cause germs in
animals to become resistant
Consumption patterns shown to reduce risk of food poisoning
Bars show the relative likelihood compared to someone who did the opposite
to antibiotics, how those
Eat chicken at home
resistant bacteria can enter
the food chain, and whether
Handle raw chicken
they're then a health threat
Eat chicken legs
to people. It's essential to
also consider the numerous
Eat whole chicken
other routes which lead to
Eat chicken purchased frozen
resistant bacteria, particularly ineﬃcient or overEat chicken prepared at home
use of antibiotics by people
Eat baked/roasted chicken
themselves.
Although some reports
Prepare main meals
have suggested links, the
Eat chicken at all (unspecified, but less than even odds)
truth is no untreatable human
food poisoning cases have
20%
40%
60%
80%
Even
Source: Neimann J. The epidemiology of sporadic campylobacteriosis in Denmark
been conﬁrmed to have been
investigated by a case-control study and strain characterization of patient isolates. Ph.D.
caused by antibiotics in anithesis, 2001. The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark.
mals that produced that food.

When Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen.
Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, introduced their bill
in this Congress that would ban most practical
uses of antibiotics to prevent diseases in food
animals, they argued, "...many scientiﬁc studies

Spot weak science
● Has the study been
reviewed by other scientists, or just taken
directly to the media?
● Does the source claim
a powerful establishment or industry is
suppressing his work?
● Is the scientific effect
barely detectable?
● Is evidence anecdotal?
● Is credibility claimed
only because something is centuries old?
● Was the research
done in isolation?
● Can the observation
be explained only by
changing natural law?
Source: Robert L. Park, University of
Maryland professor of physics and
author of Voodoo Science.

Antibiotics prevent
animal disease and
improve meat, milk and
egg production. These
important, safe and
proven tools remain
absolutely necessary to
meet the world's growing demand for affordable protein.
ALPHARMA Inc.,
Animal Health sponsors
this educational series
to provide facts to help
set the record straight.
Comment or questions?
E-mail Steve Kopperud
at skopperud@poldir.com
or editor Mike Smith
at CustomMedia@
Food360.com.
To read past issues:
www.alpharmaah.com.

http://www.alpharmaah.com

Meat + Poultry - September 2006

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