Antibiotics for farm animals: still resistant germs on turkey meat



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Status: 08/24/2021 5:00 a.m.

According to a random sample, turkey meat apparently still contains germs that are resistant to antibiotics. Industry and politics have been promising to tackle the problem for years.

By Christian Baars and Oda Lambrecht, NDR

Reinhild Benning from Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) explains that they did what millions of consumers do – namely, buy turkey meat from a discounter. Instead of preparing the meat, however, they sent it to a laboratory and had it checked for antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

The result of the University of Greifswald, the NDR is present, confirms a major problem again: Resistant germs can be found on many cuts of meat, which means that certain antibiotics are no longer effective. Of the total of 62 samples, 19 were contaminated with it – almost a third.

Transfers possible in both directions

Such bacteria can be transmitted from animals to humans – or vice versa – in various ways. However, it is unclear how many infections in humans are caused by resistant germs from animals. In principle, however, there is “always a risk of transmission,” says the microbiologist Katharina Schaufler from the University of Greifswald, who examined the poultry meat.

In the case of poor kitchen hygiene, for example, germs can spread further from raw meat. According to Schaufler, they could trigger a disease, especially in people with a weakened immune system. And infections with resistant germs are difficult to treat because the corresponding antibiotics no longer work.

Important drugs at risk

Bacteria with resistance to active substances are particularly worrying, according to the assessment of the World Health Organization (WHO) are particularly important for human medicine. In the current study, such pathogens were found in eleven of the 62 meat samples.

One of these vital ingredients is colistin. In Germany, the agent is mainly used in poultry farming. For years, many doctors and organizations have been calling for this antibiotic to be banned in animals, or at least to be used much less frequently. In the opinion of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the use should be reduced to “the absolutely therapeutically necessary level”.

No real decline in years

But it is still used in large quantities. It is true that the use of colistin decreased significantly from 2011 to 2016. However, the situation has hardly improved since then. For most of the other antibiotics, too, the amount used has stagnated for years.

At the request of the NDR the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry (ZDG) refers to the reductions already achieved. The declared goal is to continue to reduce the use of antibiotics in the future. In talks with the government, they even offered to do without colistin completely in the future. However, the association had linked this with the requirement that other means of prevention and treatment of the animals had to be approved.

There are alternatives

The head of the poultry clinic at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover Foundation, Silke Rautenschlein, sees “definitely opportunities to further reduce the use”. The veterinarian specializing in poultry and microbiology explains, for example, that slow-growing broilers usually need to be treated with antibiotics less often than fast-growing chickens. In addition, you can reduce the risk of infection if you leave the stalls empty for longer until new animals are stabled.

“Actually, we only get a reduced use of antibiotics through better husbandry,” adds the veterinarian for microbiology, Katharina Schaufler, from the University of Greifswald. The animals shouldn’t stand so close together, but that costs a lot.

The Central Association of the German Poultry Industry writes to the NDR, most livestock keepers had already reduced the stocking density since 2018, and they continue to rely on a “gradual reduction”.

Expert sees government failure

The agricultural expert from Deutsche Umwelthilfe, Reinhild Benning, sees politics as being responsible. “We have a risk of resistance in the food chain that can only be ended and slowed down with courageous political measures and more animal welfare in the barn,” says Benning. She accuses the government of “failure” that it has not succeeded in the past few years Further reduce the use of antibiotics.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture confirms the problem on request and explains to the NDRthat the situation is “unsatisfactory”. The ministry also writes, however, that the federal government has been campaigning for “strategies” for many years to limit the use of antibiotics in humans and animals to what is “exclusively medically necessary”.

Ministry lets research

The ministry headed by Julia Klöckner also points out that various projects are being advertised to promote research and practical projects, for example to improve animal health in broiler poultry – with the aim of reducing the amount of antibiotics used.

In addition, the European Commission has only just been asked to include binding requirements for keeping turkeys in the “upcoming revision of EU animal welfare legislation”. In Germany there are so far no specific animal welfare regulations for keeping turkeys – unlike pigs, for example. Animal protection associations have been criticizing this for years.

EU Parliament decides on the ban

Meanwhile, at the European level, there is a heated argument about whether some reserve antibiotics should be banned in animal husbandry, i.e. drugs that are particularly important for the treatment of people and should therefore be used as little as possible. The EU Parliament wants to vote on it in mid-September. The outcome is uncertain.

Antibiotic-resistant germs on turkey meat

Christian Baars, NDR, 8/24/2021 6:28 am



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