New York, NY, November 4, 2001. Three years ago this site warned that because of a squalor in the food production industry, human antibiotics needed by cancer patients are at risk of losing their efficacy. Farmers are allowed to feed their cattle fodder laced with poultry manure. The poultry manure is often laced with antibiotics. Antibiotics are used partly to stop caged chickens from picking up E-coli bacteria from their own manure. It seemed pretty obvious that antibiotic-resistant bacteria put cancer patients and other immune-compromised people at risk.
At least one drug company that makes antibiotics that are used to keep this dirty-feed process going, increasing the growing risk risk of antibiotic-resistant infection and food-borne illness in humans, also donates money to cancer patient lobbyists.
That was before 9/11 and before the still unsoved anthrax attacks. Now, with risks looming on a new scale, one particular company is selling a version of Cipro, drug of choice for treating anthrax, to fatten chickens. That company is Bayer, which makes Cipro for humans and Baytril for chickens.
"Cipro, despite it current fame for preventing and treating anthrax," say Ellen Silbergeld and Polly Walker in a recent op-ed, "is in danger of becoming a casualty of what might be called the post-antibiotic age."
"Cipro, despite it current fame for preventing and treating anthrax," say Ellen Silbergeld and Polly Walker in a recent op-ed, "is in danger of becoming a casualty of what might be called the post-antibiotic age."
Bayer, Cipro's manufacturer, also makes and sells a chemically similar drug called Baytril, which is used in large-scale poultry production worldwide. The widespread use of Baytril in chickens has already been shown to decrease Cipro's effectiveness in humans for some types of infections. [What if Cipro Stopped Working? by Ellen Silbergeld and Polly Walker, New York Times Nov 3, 2001]
Last month, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that drug-resistant bacteria were found in meat bought at supermarkets in Washington, D.C. NEJM calls for a ban on non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals. Silbergold and Walker notethat such a ban is already in place in the European Union.
Three years ago PSA Rising pointed to Abbott Laboratories as one of the big manufacturers promoting and selling Cipro-like antibiotics for routine use for chickens. Is this prudent, we asked, "considering the risk of making Cipro, for example, useless for treating vulnerable people including prostate cancer patients?" (Chicken Scoop, Nov. 28, 1997)
How naive we were, back before September 11th, not even thinking about anthrax. Just concerned to preserve Cipro as essential to keep prostate biopsies safe and to help protect patients on chemotherapy or with advanced disease from dying of trivial infections.
Last year, the FDA asked Abbott Laboratories and Bayer, the two leading producers of the chicken drug, to halt sale of Cipro-like antibiotics for agricultural use. Abbott agreed. Bayer did not. We add our voice to those calling on Bayer to do so immediately.
Related
Poultry Scoop. Like your cows fed on chicken manure plus a dose of antibiotics? What goes around comes around in the darndest ways. 1997
PETA apologizes to Rudy Giuliani, but still doesn't get it. Sept 2, 2000.
Links and references
What if Cipro Stopped Working? by Ellen Silbergeld and Polly Walker, New York Times Nov 3, 2001
Poultry Scoop, Nov 28, 1997
Windfall to Drug Companies, By Syd Parlow, Letters, Nov 3, 2001
Casey Affleck Takes Aim at the Meat Industry
(this brief video shows filthyand inhumane conditions -- viewer discretion)
Watch more videos at PETA.org
"Order a FREE vegetarian starter kit at GoVeg.com."
