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Thanks to BU family member Bentley for the source material
A common response to a sickness today is to feed the body with some form of antibiotic. Back in the old days people were expected to fight off what ailed them with healthy bodies and the immunity therein. In the unlikely event the sickness overwhelmed them, they would resort to natural or herbal remedies, commonly referred to as bush remedies.
According to recent research, the prevalent use of antibiotics in agriculture and livestock is gaining attention from the White House. The frequent feeding of livestock with antibiotics has seen rise to animals which have become drug-resistant. The problem is escalated when the drug-resistant infections are passed on to humans.
A telling feedback from the researchers:
Researchers say the overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals has led to a plague of drug-resistant infections that killed more than 65,000 people in the U.S. last year — more than prostate and breast cancer combined. And in a nation that used about 35 million pounds of antibiotics last year, 70 percent of the drugs went to pigs, chickens and cows. Worldwide, it’s 50 percent.
“This is a living breathing problem, it’s the big bad wolf and it’s knocking at our door,” said Dr. Vance Fowler, an infectious disease specialist at Duke University. “It’s here. It’s arrived.”
It is no secret Barbados currently manages a huge import bill, the USA supplies a significant percentage of our imports. In the same way the economists tell Barbadians that we import inflation because of our dependence on imports, what would the medical fraternity say? Barbados is jokingly referred to as the amputation capital of the world. The high level of non communicable diseases is one of the highest in the region. Can Barbadians be satisfied that our health inspectors in the relevant departments are applying standards to safeguard our health? BU would like to hear Minister Donville Inniss issue a statement on this matter.
Here is another snippet from the research which we hope scares the BU family the way it did the BU household.
America’s farmers give their pigs, cows and chickens about 8 percent more antibiotics each year, usually to heal lung, skin or blood infections. However, 13 percent of the antibiotics administered on farms last year were fed to healthy animals to make them grow faster. Antibiotics also save as much as 30 percent in feed costs among young swine, although the savings fade as pigs get older, according to a new USDA study.
However, these animals can develop germs that are immune to the antibiotics. The germs then rub into scratches on farmworkers’ arms, causing oozing infections. They blow into neighboring communities in dust clouds, run off into lakes and rivers during heavy rains, and are sliced into roasts, chops and hocks and sent to our dinner tables.
“Antibiotic-resistant microorganisms generated in the guts of pigs in the Iowa countryside don’t stay on the farm,” said Union of Concerned Scientists Food and Environment director Margaret Mellon.
We are what we eat!
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