The next damning facing animal agriculture is the bit about antibiotics used. It is said our use of antibiotics is creating the Methicillin Resistant Staph infections (MRSA) in people. It is said we are contributing to the resistant reservoir. I say show me the research demonstrating this.
Last year those of us in the American Association of Bovine Practitioners were a major force in postponing the label use of cephalosporins in animals, which is a well known class of antibiotics that we use almost everyday. This class includes Naxcel, Excenel and Excede. As veterinarians, we would like to have the freedom to treat disease and conditions the way we see fit. This rule would have resulted in veterinarians only being able to use this class of drugs as labeled, even though we know there are several other uses for these same antibiotics. To me, it is impossible for an official, sitting at a desk to be able to tell whether or not an antibiotic is warranted in the case and animal I am looking at without actually examining the animal.
Countless emails, letters and conversations with the officials in Washington were written and sent. This is still going on and may come about, but it has been driven back into more debate. The FDA is still finalizing a ruling on this right now. At least we have spoken up and let them know we do not want to give up our freedoms of prescribing medications as we justifiably see fit.
I have the privilege of being friends with Mike Apley, DVM, PhD, DACVCP. He wrote a very pointed email to all of us in Bovine Practitioners and is allowing me to use some of his points for this article. He did go to Washington to speak on our behalf to the officials proposing the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Therapy. This act would essentially withdraw all of the uses of antibiotics for rate of gain, feed efficiency or routine prevention. It does this by only allowing 2 years to prove that they are safe with no human concerns. This is an impossible time frame for research that is sound and statistically significant, let alone time enough to come up with a new method of evaluation since the bill requires a new procedure.
My question is, “How do we control disease and prevent disease without the ability to prescribe antibiotics as the case dictates?”
A quote from Dr. Apley: “I don’t think the growth promotion claims are worth much effort, but the disease prevention/control claims are definitely worth the fight, and what about therapeutics?” We have to make sure that the consumers know that the production benefits of modern technology are being passed along to them. We need to attack from the point of disease prevention and control, because this will help eliminate the animal suffering and disease running wild.
Another quote from Dr. Apley, “Let’s look at it from another angle, would giving in to activist spin and giving up uses without sufficient evidence set a precedent that activist groups can just wear us down in an incremental fashion? How about 5 years from now when a new antimicrobial that could dramatically effect disease and suffering in food animals is shown to have no demonstrable adverse public health effects but the approval is rejected because “you never know.” How willing are we to accept activist groups and ballot boxes as the determinant of what we have to address disease in food animals? Are we willing to work under a demand for zero risk by activists?” End of quote.
Now, I put a call out to all of you to call, email, facebook, tweet and contact your legislative representatives and senators to help us with this fight. This is a big deal and we do not need our heads in the sand. One way we could fight this is to at least demand refereed research that is not tainted to prove it. In Denmark they have already banned all feed additives and antibiotics in the feed to animals. The first year approximately one half of their hog producers went out of business. They just could not handle the labor to inject all of the sick pigs. This is not just cattle, but also all of animal agriculture, including hogs, chickens, sheep and goats.
The people behind most of this would prefer all of us to become VEGANS! A vegan is a vegetarian that doesn’t eat any animal products such as, cheese, milk or any product from animals. And yes, they would like to put all of us out of business. I like the motto, “No Farms, No Food.”
Dr. Tim O’Neill owns Country Veterinary Clinic in Farmington, Ark.
