Post Antibiotic Future

Antibiotics, composed of microorganisms such as streptomycin and penicillin, kill other infectious microorganisms in the human body. At one point, antibiotics were considered to have “basically wiped out infection in the United States”, but due to their overuse and evolutionary

A couple times a year local and national mass media put the spotlight on problems connected to antibiotic overuse. Some people consider those problems to be real and serious, and others think that the discussed topics are nothing more than new “fashionable” subjects to talk about, distracting people from “real” problems, such as climbing gas prices or war expenses. Meanwhile, antibiotic overuse continues as a common practice among US doctors and agribusinesses for the last 20 years. The practice of antibiotic overuse has put patient’s health at risk, contributed to antibiotic resistance and increased bacterial mutation to a new, stronger level; as well as it hitting the economy with new costly expenses in health care. It is time to stop

The main threat for the overuse of antibiotics are the creation of antibiotic resistant microbes, or more commonly called superbugs. Antibiotics are used to kill mass amounts of bacteria, but they cannot kill all of them. Some bacteria still survive, so they will reproduce and pass their genes down to their offspring. The offspring will now have their parents genes, which includes being resistant to a certain type of antibiotic. Tom Philpott, an award winning writer about food politics, explained, “And the worst part is that antibiotics use in factory farms is not mostly matter of keeping animals healthy.” Philpott is saying farmers mostly use antibiotics to promote faster growth and not to treat sickness. American Cyanamid, a pharmaceutical company, tested animals with vitamin B12 to see if they grew faster. The animals saw significant weight gain, and more experiments were tested. What American Cyanamid found was the antibiotic in vitamin B12 was actually causing the weight gain. This discovery led to mass amounts of antibiotics being used in animals. In 1950, before the discovery, there were 1.6 million chicken farms raising a total of about 560 million chickens. 28 years later, 3 billion chickens were being hatched in about 31,000 large farms (Philpott). The discovery led to mass expansion of farms, because animals were able to grow faster and bigger, so farms took advantage. Factory farms have been overusing

Resistance among bacteria to current antibiotics may cause a new pre-antibiotic era, where common bacterial infections become as lethal as before the invention of the first antibiotic penicillin. With resistance on the rise, ‘simple’ surgery, cancer treatment and organ transplantation may become impossible.[4] Despite this very big and real threat[1], big pharmaceutical companies have abandoned or decreased their efforts to develop new antibiotics, while the demand for new and broad –and small– spectrum antibiotics is increasing.[2] [3] In this paper I will give an outline of the main factors why big pharmaceutical companies are no longer developing new antibiotics and I will attempt to pose possible solutions –call it Utopian solutions– that may turn the tide before it is too late.

In 2011, the United States sold 29.9 million pounds of antibiotics for meat and poultry production use. but only 7.7 million pounds for human use. Antibiotics are used in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to kill bacteria that lives among the animals to keep them healthy until slaughter. They come with many side effects which end up harming the consumer, the animal's life becomes shortened because of the antibiotics speeding up the growth and the long term effects on the earth could end up costing us lots of money. Even though antibiotics keep the animal healthy, the usage in livestock should be banned because it causes a health threat to the consumer and creates antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Believe it or not, there was a time when the food industry was 100% natural and free of man-made inventions. But, as population grew, so did the efforts to try and produce more food for a cheaper price. Caring for livestock during the 1900’s was not an easy task because, as everyone might know by now, animals are fragile and susceptible to many diseases which led to costly deaths that companies were not fond of. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that a group of scientists from the US, discovered that adding antibiotics in animal feed increased the growth rate of the livestock. By 2001, The Union of Concerned Scientists reported that nearly 90% of the antibiotics used in livestock were being used for non-therapeutic purposes, in other words, it was

When you hear the word antibiotic, what do you think? It’s what all the doctors give us, so it has to be safe, right? What if I were to tell you that antibiotics could be the reason for more sickness, would you believe me? No, antibiotics themselves are not making us sick, their effect on bacteria and disease is what is. Antibiotics are used to cure disease, control symptoms, and prevent anything from happening in the first place. But, in the agricultural society, antibiotics are often used to get quicker growth and more efficient weight gain of their livestock. This is where the antibiotic controversy stems from. Some feel that antibiotic use in food animals is a major cause for antibiotic resistance, and should there for stop being used for unnecessary purposes. Whereas the other end, more neutral side, claims that regulated necessary antibiotics must be used to ensure the health of the animals and consumers.

The misuse of penicillin and other antibiotics however is causing the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in which seemingly harmless infections turn to be deadly and dangerous. Antibiotics are not only casually used as treatments for bacterial infections, but are also used in agriculture and veterinary medicine, creating controversy on the proper uses of antibiotics. As advancements in the medical fields proved to be beneficial for a short period of time, today the misuse of these innovations are creating more and more problems that have proven to be dangerous to the accustomed health of the global population. Antibiotics were not always considered to be a superficial medication and, in fact, have been naturally used for millions of years, like with ants and their symbiosis with antibiotic producing fungi. Humans do not fully realize the value that antibiotics have brought to the population and do not take measures to preserve their use. In contrast, humans take for advantage the natural benefits that is given to them to overly benefit themselves, such as while creating revenue through mass production despite warning from scientists. This selfish misuse leads to consequences in which the future will have to provide solutions for, and perhaps even follow in the ants’ footsteps.

Antibiotics have played an essential role in the fight against diseases and infections since the 1940’s. Antibiotics are a leading cause for the rise of global average life expectancy in the 20th and 21st century. They have greatly reduced illnesses and deaths due to diseases. With the introductions of antibiotics in the 1940’s, like penicillin into clinical practice, formally deadly illnesses became immediately curable and saved thousands of lives (Yim 2006). Antibiotic use has been beneficial and when prescribed and taken correctly their effects on patients are exceedingly valuable. However, because these drugs have been used so widely and for such a long period of time the bacteria that the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted,

I recently watched the documentary called Food Inc. in which it unveiled the unsanitary conditions of livestock farming. Some livestock farmers use antibiotic-treated feed for their animals because they become very ill. The reason for heavy use of antibiotics is that the lack of sanitation in the tunnel ventilated houses create infections in the animals. (Robert Kenner, 2009) In some cases, antibiotics are administered without the consultation of an accredited veterinarian and for no reason. There has been an increasing fear in the public that antibiotics used in the meat and poultry may have some unexpected negative effects after years of consumption. The Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) have published articles that report on the effects of medicated feed that may create antibiotic resistance in humans. The CDC reports that 3,800 cases of drug-resistant Salmonella Typhi infections occur per year in the United States (CDC, 2013.) Salmonella is a foodborne illness which is also contagious amongst food animals. In recent news, the World Health Organization (2015) has labeled red meat a carcinogen. This recent information fuels the public’s fear that there may be a link to human antibiotic resistance and the overuse of antibiotics in food animals . This type of news has made antibiotics in livestock feed an urgent public health issue. In order to prevent antibiotic resistance and deter this problem the proposed bill known as Senate Bill 770 (SB. 770)

Finally, the most important reason there should be strict regulations to curb the overuse of antibiotics in factory farming is because this practice is creating breeding grounds for super bugs. A 2008 report from Pew Commission report on Industrial Farm Animal Production concluded that “of particular concern is the rapid rise in antibiotic-resistant microbes, an inevitable consequence of the widespread use of antibiotics as feed additives in industrial livestock operations” (Sayre 76-83). Most often the superbugs hitch a ride into the surrounding environment in the mountains of waste produced on industrial scale farms. They end up in our ground water, soil, and even our meats. Making themselves know in the ever increasing numbers of antibiotic-resistant infections that now kill more people annually than AIDS.

“The antibiotics these animals consume with their corn at this very moment are selecting, in their gut and whatever else in the environment they end up, for new strains of resistant bacteria that will someday infect us and withstand the drugs we depend on to treat that infection (Pollan. 81.)” Similarly, we will possess those same microbes from the animals we eat. There are roughly 5 diseases that can be attributed to antibiotic resistance due to factory farming; e. coli H-7, MRSA, Campylobacter/Salmonella, Mad Cow disease and Obesity. E. coli strains are normal in cows, but this particular strain thrives in feedlot cattle. Due to high grain diet the cows are fed, allows the deadly strain to withstand acidic environments in other words, resist acidity in our stomachs. This strain of E.coli can cause severe kidney damage. Children and elderly people are more likely to have severe symptoms and die. According to an Oxford Journal article MRSA infections leads to more deaths than HIV/ AIDS every year(Stryjewski 19.) MRSA is very common to pass in hospitals, and it’s antibiotic resistance makes it very difficult to treat. Campylobacter and Salmonella can be killed through proper cooking. Although, both are becoming more resistant to antibiotics. Campylobacter can be found on more than half the chicken being sold in stores. Mad Cow disease occurs when cows are fed other pieces of butchered cow, sheep or goat. Causing an infectious neurodegenerative disease in the animals which get passed to us. Luckily this is a disease more rare than the others I have discussed. Roughly 1 in 3 Americans is considered obese, calling obesity a disease is debatable. The country with the largest food industry also has the largest obesity rate. Arguably it doesn’t meet the requirements for a disease, but the American Heart Association and the American

The overuse of antibiotics has been a problem for well over a decade. This misuse leads to many nonvisible problems arising within the human population. As the use of antibiotics increases, the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria also increases. When bacteria become resistant to an antibiotic, another antibiotic must be used to try and kill it and the cycle becomes vicious. Michael Martin, Sapna Thottathil, and Thomas Newman stated that antimicrobial resistance is, “an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society” (2409).

As the soil becomes more and more polluted with these toxins, it becomes unsustainable. Therefore, land that would have remained fertile for centuries through the commonsense farming of our ancestors, is being ruined by farming controlled by big corporations whose sole interest is in immediate short term profit (Goodall 38). Industrialized livestock farming with thousands of animals crammed into small factory spaces is responsible for numerous bacterial and viral infections such as E.coli., Avian bird flu, Mad cow disease, Salmonella, and many more. Therefore, conventional farmers use antibiotics to keep these animals alive. This over use of antibiotics is causing the creation of new, resistant strains of deadly diseases that kill people and animals. Disease is actually caused by the bad practices, shortcuts, and antibiotic resistance. This has the opposite effect of what was intended and also costs farmers millions of dollars every year instead of saving money. Unfortunately, conventional agriculture experts recommend these monocultural farming practices in the name of quick, mass production.

According the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic resistance is one of the world’s greatest health threats to date (Haddox, 2013). In the article, The Health Threat of Antibiotic Resistance, Gail Haddox (2013) discusses the danger antibiotic resistance poses in today’s society and strategies to prevent the expansion of antibiotic resistance. In Europe alone, an estimated 25,000 deaths have been attributed to multi-resistant infections (Haddox, 2013). Common infections are now harder to treat due to the increased resistance to antibiotics across the world, in fact some are becoming untreatable. Antibiotics should be treated like oil, a non-renewable resource (Haddox, 2013).