Poultry and Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotics play a major role in maintaining the health of the animals that serve as poultry food. But the use of antibiotics has increased day by day and it has come under deep scrutiny.  The purpose of using antimicrobial resistant is to prevent the occurrence of any disease, to treat an already occurred disease and for growth and promotion of the poultry. Their indiscriminate use has however raised concerns over the impact it can have on human health.

Concerns of Certain Antimicrobials in India

Recently, a study has been conducted by the researchers from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy which has been published in the Environmental Health Perspectives Journal. The study in India indicates that there are high levels of antibiotic resistant pathogens in the bodies of chickens used for both meat and eggs, especially in the state of Punjab.

Some of the test results are as follows:

• The levels of multi-drug resistance that has been found are: 39% from ciproflaxin, a drug used mainly to treat gastroenteritis, cellulitis, respiratory tract infections etc, 86% from nalidixic acid that is used to treat urinary infections, from e.coli bacterial pneumonia.
• Colistin is a major antibiotic that is being used in countries like India, Vietnam, South Korea and Russia since the year 2016. One of the major companies in India that advertises the use of colistin is Venky’s. Ironically, the company supplies the meat to the fast food chains of McDonalds and KFC.
• After collecting samples from 530 birds in 18 poultry farms, it was concluded that over two-third of the farms used anbtibiotics for the purpose of growth promotion. The meat farms had more anti-biotic resistant poultry than the egg producing farms.

Impact of Overuse of Antibiotics on Poultry

• Since the overuse results in development of a resistance towards the microbe, the bacteria (colistin in India) spreads to the chicken farms affecting even healthy chicken, contaminates the air surrounding the farms and even infect the farm workers. The faeces consisting of the bacteria are also likely to attract more flies, further contaminating open food.
• The consumption of this poultry has a very adverse effect on human health too. The indirect consumption of the antibiotic resistant bacteria leads to development of the same resistance in human body, making medication next to impossible. Study shows that around 7,00,000 people have died worldwide every year due to this drug-resistant bacteria. The number may reach to 1 crore by 2050 if no control is exercised.

There is no doubt that the anti-biotics that are used on humans only when they become extremely sick have a very strong effect. They cannot be used indiscriminately on chickens for achieving some commercial gain. Before the world population is reduced to half by these drug-resistant bacteria, some action needs to be taken. Some countries like the US have banned the use of antibiotics on poultry. The same step needs to be followed in India too.