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Danish Researchers Find Overuse Of Antimicrobials In American Farms

June 6, 2011 by  

Danish researchers find overuse of antimicrobials in American farmsIt’s a common practice for farmers who run large, industrial livestock operations to supplement their animals with antibiotics and antimicrobials to keep them from getting sick. However, the administration of such drugs may be a factor behind antibiotic-resistanct bacteria in both humans and animals.

Moreover, a team of researchers from the National Food Institute of Denmark has found that the doses of antimicrobials being used may far exceed what is necessary to prevent disease.

Denmark is the world’s largest exporter of pork, yet they use less than one-fifth the amount of antimicrobials in their pork per kilogram than U.S. farmers. The authors also noted that using vaccines in fish farms could reduce the usage of antibiotics by 20 times the current amount.

“Substantial reduction of antimicrobial use in livestock is feasible and necessary if we want to preserve the power of antimicrobials for future generations of both animals and humans,” said study authors.

The researchers said that avian influenza H5N1, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and salmonella are all diseases that originated in animals.

Filed Under: Alternative Medicine, Liberty News, Nutrition
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  • Cep

    ITs a shame that farms have to get so big that they have to use drugs to keep farm animals well.We are in greed drven generation.Its all about the dollor bill.

  • charles a pembroke

    Stop worrying and either eat or don’t eat the food.It’s your choice.Every time I turn around there is another scare.I’m going to continue to eat what I like and enjoy it.The way to go is to raise your own beef,pork or veggies.And don’t be afraid of these warnings.The people who put out these warnings have been wrong on many occasions.Sounds like all the big farmers want to kill us.It also sounds like class warfare.

  • Veritatis

    First, the Danish study would have you believe all farmers overuse the growth hormones, herbicides, pesticides and antibiotics, etc. and that the meat you buy is not safe. You need to hear the TRUTH and know what you can do to get good, safe meat at a really decent price.

    I am an Organic farmer and raise Organic Angus Beef, which means my animals get none of the above and even my crop land and pastures never get any of that either. Additionally, my animals are all on pasture and no in any crowded feed lot. I am not alone in this. There are many, many farmers raising Organic food and animals all over the nation.

    PAY ATTENTION NOW – this is what you need to do!

    Search out the Organic farmers in your area and Buy Direct from them. BEWARE!!! Many farmers who use all those chemicals on their land and animals will tell you they are “Organic”, but they are LYING to you to get your business. So, insist on seeing the Organic Certification for anyone you want to buy from; the true Organic farmers have the papers. And, don’t be afraid to ask the farmer to see his animals and his operation. Remember, you are a customer and will be making a big purchase that benefits both you and the farmer.

    Be aware of these Facts. You are not going to a grocery store, so don’t expect that. You will need to buy, in most cases, either an entire animal or possibly a side (half the animal) and that’s not cheap, but the price per pound will be way less than any grocery store. You will also need a good freezer to store all of the meat you buy after it is processed. You also need to know that the Quality of the meat will stay good for at least a year in the case of beef if it is kept frozen.

    The Price and How Much meat you will get. Suppose you buy a steer that weighs roughly 1,500 pounds (live weight) – you will want to pay the farmer what the animal is worth, plus a bit more than what he normally gets when he sells steers. A fair price for a steer that size is at least $2+ live weight or $3+ hanging weight (about 1/3 of his weight is lost when he is butchered) and nearly another 1/3 will be lost when the hanging carcass is processed. Normally this means you should end up with over 600 pounds of packaged meat. You will also have to pay the Processor for their services in cutting up the animal and packaging your meat. Check all your numbers carefully and you should end up with a lot of quality meat at prices far below the stores selling Organic Beef.

  • armyblue

    I quit eating meat as of five years ago contracted cancer. Don’t know if that was the cause (antibiotics) but after the operation I contracted MRSA and spent 31 days in ICU. Today I read labels about what’s in what and how much. I hope I’m doing better. We’ll see.

  • Beverly

    The problem is that so few people live on farms these days that they believe everything they read without any real knowlege or background on what they are talking about. Alarmism , fright, sells newspapers, supplements, organic[supposed] healthier foods , but no proof of that, just ignorance.

    The fact is that in grandpa’s day there was lots of germs and viruses just like today and everything was ‘organic” The animals and people died, but nobody blamed it on genetically modified foods [do you really know what that is?] antibiotics, pesticides etc.

    So, don’t be taken in by hype. Actually study a bit! What did grandpa do? Was there illness then? What was life expectancy in the years in 1918 during the worldwide flu epidemic?

  • karolyn

    I would love to be able to afford free range meat and all organic produce. Actually, I don’t eat much meat at all, so I’m not getting too many antibios. I don’t get sick either. Haven’t had to be on an abio in many years. Can’t even remember how long. My friend works at a pig farm; and at least they have stopped giving the pigs steroids. What I don’t understand is i other countries can do without feeding crap to the animals, why can’t the US. It’s the same with preservatives in everything. Why is it that there are brands that manufacture great food and sell it without chemicals, while so many others continue to add all those chemicals? – and very often at no price difference. I jut don’t get it!

    • granny mae

      karolyn,

      Don’t feel bad the rest of us can’t figure it out either. Except maybe it is the big chemical companies and their lobyests, or their making deals with food manufacturers to use their products and chemicals and dyes in their foods with kick-backs. I laughed when they tried to push green katsup off on kids and the kids refused to accept it ! Kids weren’t fooled and they did not like green ketsup ! My grand kids were some. They wouldn’t touch the stuff. You don’t see green ketsup on the shelves today. I think the big problem with the animal raising and antibiotics in their feed is because they raise the animals in such very close quarters that if one gets sick they can infect several other around them before the farmer can find them, by that time he looses several animals to disease instead of one so he just pumps the antibiotics to the animals in their feed to be on the safe side. I live in an area that has lots of chicken farms around here, and I can tell you that they put thousands of chickens at a time in one chicken house ! If they keep them crowded they don’t move around as much so they eat and gain weight sooner and then can be sent to market sooner costing the farmer less money to raise and giving him a better profit ! It is the same with cows and pigs. If a farmer has milk cows then he puts them out to pasture so they will graze on the grass and give plenty of milk but beef cattle are corraled at a certain point in time so they can be fattened and sold to market ! It is all about money. The cost to raise an animal and the price to sell. Then imagine the butcher costs and the transportation cost to move that meat across the town or the state to the stores for sale to the public and they still have to be able to sell it as reasonable as possible so people can afford to buy it and the people in between can all take some profit off it! I prefere to raise my own so I know what is in it and that it was raised in a humane manner. Even at that it cost a lot of feed my animals.

  • http://www.reformdc.com nax777

    Most are falling for the propaganda. We will make someone in Britain listen to us as we allow the Brits to define what makes a person smart enough and experienced enough. Only content matters!

    The opposition is using capitalism against us. Even the capitalist are destroying us. All the conservative groups out there won’t set capitalism aside long enough to get everyone on one platform.
    Capitalism works best for individual prosperity raising all boats. But as a political tool capitalism serves as the best way to separate people.

    Feeding an overpopulating poor nation of people before they learn to govern their passions is the work of a cruel or foolish heart. What better way to teach the fool hearted than to have these nations overwhelm them.

    Ill taught Libs and Christians produce the most foolish hearts. One line scripture and buzz phrases are served as applications to all things. Jesus has been quoted many times; “is it not written?”, “have you not read?”

    Replace the parties with citizens that can be immediately removed by citizens and never serve for a life time. We must take control ourselves. Please join with us at Goooh.com you might be able to click on my name. This will take you to my link page that links to Goooh.com, NumbersUSA.com and SBA-list.org.

    P.S. Have you heard of “you cut” @ http://majorityleader.gov/YouCut/

    • http://burkecomputers.blogspot.com/ DanB

      Capitalism isn’t the problem. State Capitalism is. There is a difference. So if something needs to be set aside, it is big government, nanny states.

      Under capitalism, someone wanted to offer his patients cheaper services. They just needed to make a minor change to how they paid him. It would then cost him less to process their payments and he could pass those savings back to his clients. State capitalists (big government) slammed the door on that. He would be competing with Insurance companies and other industries all because he was changing the payment plan for his patients. It wasn’t capitalism that shut down a means to economic health care. It was crony capitalism, the nanny state, big government. And this applies to many industries.

      Isn’t it ironic that with all the disease being spread in our food here in the US that will create regulation that will shutdown the small producers in favor of the big companies? Ironic because when we actually trace down the source of the epidemics, it is usually because the big producers have centralized facilities to process food that introduces the cross contamination. Ironic because the regulations will be infeasible for the small producers to comply with. Ironic that then more of our food will come through those centralized facilities that can afford to update a single infrastructure to comply with the new standards, even though it is that single structure that is the source of the increased risk in the first place. And I had read some time ago about a farmer who found a way to market his milk cheaper. He offered the lower price and made big profits. Instead of letting capitalism decide the future of his competitors, big government stepped in and forced him to raise his prices and pay the money to his competitors no less because he obviously had an unfair advantage….

      No capitalism isn’t the problem. What we are doing to it through government overreach is a whole massive problem.

  • Disgusted

    If this is causing problems for humans, think what the produce from a round up resistant seed will do! We are killing ourselves with all these antibiotic, growth hormone, GE products being utilized. Look at the increase in cancers, food allergies, ADHD, ADD, Autism, Obesity, etc………
    We need to stop the madness of contaminating our food sources.

  • eddie47d

    Overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals effects us all. Stronger doses will always be needed to keep infections and diseases down so eventually we will all become immune or become even sicker from the “cure”.

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