Poultry Scoop
What goes around comes around . . . .
Was the cow in your hamburger fed chicken manure then doped up with antibiotics?
New York, NY. November 28th 1997. This story is not as plump as an outback free range hen nor as handsome as a rooster. Unfortunately, it simply follows a trail of chicken droppings into the mouths and guts of weaning calves and from there along a path to veterinerary antibiotics. This cattle-feeding method and associated use of antibiotics is giving rise rise to twin dangers: food-borne illness and bacteria-resistant antibiotics. The impact is of special concern to vulnerable people from infants to cancer patients and other immune-compromised people. For cancer activists the story contains an added twist. What's good for drug manufacturers isn't necessarily good for people whose lives depend on drugs. This is one reason for thinking twice before letting drug companies take charge of our advocacy agenda.
Let's start, briefly, with a look at US law governing use of chicken manure in animal feed. Shortly after Thanksgiving, with news-stands carrying warnings about "Danger in the Food Supply" ( US News & World Report, Nov 24 1997), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made two announcements. One, which was highly publicized, approved use of irradiation on red meat ("such as beef, lamb and pork") so as to kill "disease-causing micro-organisms." Zap the bugs.
That same day, the FDA told farmers: It's OK to feed cows and calves fodder containing chicken droppings. "Recycled animal waste, such as processed chicken manure and litter," said Daryl Fleming for the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, "has been used as a feed ingredient for almost 40 years. This animal waste contains . . . protein, fiber, and minerals and has been deliberately mixed into animal feed for these nutrients."
According to the CVM, "Normally, this animal waste is used by small farmers and owners of beef and dairy herds as a winter supplement for mother cows and weaned calves." Is it safe? While the practice "seems unpleasant," CVM considers it to be "safe as long as it meets certain specifications .... "
Today's specifications are more complex than any rules small farmers were supposed to comply with 40 years ago when (according to CVM) the method caught on. Today, anyone making food from chicken manure is supposed to test it and keep records and post warnings (e.g. THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS DRUG RESIDUES. DO NOT USE WITHIN 15 DAYS OF SLAUGHTER). Enforcement is left up to state authorities. Today a massive amount of processed chicken is raised, slaughtered and packaged in poorer states like Arkansas, states with fewer tax resources to fund rigorous inspection.
To continue using chicken manure as food for weaning calves (along with other "dirty" practices) the industry starts with manure from poultry raised on antibiotics. For example, the antibiotic SaraFlox is put in the birds' drinking water. SaraFlox is a fluoroquinolone type drug. The FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine approved Saraflox in 1995 specifically for keeping broiler chickens and growing turkeys from dying of E-coli infection picked up from their own manure. By 1995, the FDA had to admit that "off-label" use was causing resistance to this entire class of antibiotics (FLQs) in humans. Does this really matter?
Yes, of course it does. Scientists are concerned about "global increase" in resistance "exceeding the rate of discovery and development of new antimicrobial drugs." By 1996, in animals treated with these antibiotics, two strains of -- Salmonella and Campylobacter -- were showing resitance to this class of antibiotics. In August 1997, the FDA banned off-label use of FLQs. This is part of what underlies media reports on food-borne illness.
So far, only off-label uses of FLQ medications are under fire. But it it seems pretty clear that these drugs, without which factory farming as we know it would not have gotten this far, make it more likely that meat, including meat from smaller farms, will leave the slaughterhouse infected with Salmonella, E-Coli, and/or Campylobacter.
Sloppy use of these powerful antibiotics on animals "is of particular concern to the human medical community ," says Stephen F. Sundlof, D.V.M., Ph.D. Director Center for Veterinary Medicine, "because these drugs are used to treat a variety of serious infectious conditions." "Cross-resistance," Sundlof says, "occurs throughout this entire class of drugs; therefore, resistance to one fluoroquinolone would compromise the effectiveness of all fluoroquinolone drugs."
Sundlof, however, wants to maintain the approved uses, which include putting SaraFlox in chicken water. Is this prudent, considering the risk of making drugs like, for example, Cipro, less effective or useless for treating vulnerable people including cancer patients?
SaraFlox is made by Abbott, the 10 billion dollar Chicago-based pharmaceutical corporation, a household name in cancer medication. Abbot makes PSA assays. Abbott makes Hytrin, a Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH) drug used for relieving urinary obstruction from prostate cancer. Abbott is doing research on erectile dysfunction, which affects many men treated for prostate cancer. Abbott's subsidiary, TAP Pharmaceuticals, makes Lupron, the chemical castration drug used increasingly for prostate cancer. TAP is invested in developing new, advanced, costly treatments, such as to block angiogenesis.
Cancer patients and AIDS patients benefit from Abbott's clout with the FDA. Abbott helps desperately ill patients by helping to win speedy approval for new drugs. Currently in the USA, FDA approval for a new drug takes about 20 months. Norvir, Abbott's protease inhibitor for adults and children with AIDS, received FDA approval "in a record 72 days."
So what's the moral of this barnyard fable for, in particular, cancer patients and survivors and those who care about them? Drug companies do keep an eye on patient advocates and their activies. Abbott's offshoot TAP sent a representative to the founding meeting of the National Prostate Cancer Coalition. Abbott has sent representatives to sessions arranged by the American Cancer Society and the AFUD at which patients lobbied Congress. TAP was in charge of the first annual NYC Prostate Cancer 5K Run. More experienced cancer activists urged NPCC to make itself a patient-driven coalition. By then, Abbott, TAP, and Zeneca were already hovering. Cancer patients need all the help that drug companies are willing to offer; yet the movement needs independence. Drug companies impose tough, perplexing choices on cancer patients. Facing these choices will strengthen cancer patient activism.
Closer to home, as members of the patient advocacy community we must not forget that we are faced every day with ordinary consumer choices. As I mentioned above, after Thanksgive FDA approved use of irradiation on red meat ("such as beef, lamb and pork") so as to kill "disease-causing micro-organisms." Zap the bugs, some if not most of which are in the meat not just because of manure in animal feed, filthy, overcrowded animal housing and dirty slaughterhouse conditions but also nowadays because drug-resistant bacteria are generated all along the line.
In coping with a major disease many people become more aware of threats to human health. Some may also at the very same time feel compelled to withdraw attention from regular consumer issues. Survivorship can become a silo. Why bother with chicken feed when the overwhelming need is to raise money for research for new life-saving biotech drugs? Why? for one thing because (as we all know) quite a few of the newer drugs, especially chemotherapy drugs, diminish immunity. How ironic is that if the day you really need a powerful antibiotic to get you over a rough patch in your cancer therapy is the day when some poor, sorry doped-up hen on a factory farm gets her final revenge?
Video
Casey Affleck Takes Aim at the Meat Industry
(this brief video shows filthy and inhumane conditions -- viewer discretion)
Watch more videos at PETA.org
"Order a FREE vegetarian starter kit at GoVeg.com."
This archived article dates from August 27, 2000. Edited with minor updates March 23, 2007 and April 27, 2010. This article does not presume to represent the latest information on this issue.References & Related
CIPRO, Baysil & Anthrax: Chickens Home to Roost? Nov 2001
What if Cipro Stopped Working? by Ellen Silbergeld and Polly Walker, New York Times Nov 3, 2001
Windfall to Drug Companies , By Syd Parlow, Letters, Nov 3, 2001
FREE vegetarian starter kit at GoVeg.com
More Archives
African-American Prostate Cancer Crisis - "Disgraceful Tragedy" January 15, 1998
Late Diagnosis. Poor Care Factors in African American Prostate Cancer Disaster
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