Previously, when you had pneumonia or sore throat, you would walk to the nearest chemist, ask for amoxyl® and in a few days everything would be OK. Today that’s not the case. You have to look for a stronger antibiotic. Does all this ring a bell? To a keen observer, it does. Both man and his animals have developed resistance to antibiotics.
The worst culprit is the use of antibiotics on animals. Each day every individual consumes animal products. From such products, we ingest different levels of antibiotics used for various purposes on animals.
Statistics in the US alone indicate that by 2013, there were 2,049,442 illnesses due to antibiotic resistance while there were 23,000 deaths due to the same.
In poultry, antibiotics serve as growth promoters, in cattle they are used in conjunction with vaccines such as the East Coast Fever vaccine above their role as drugs used for treating ailments. Administration of antibiotics has become the norm in every farm.
This has led to the development of resistance by bacteria such that they have developed ways in which they can survive previously lethal concentrations of certain drugs therefore leading to worsening of infections, lack of treatment of infections or even relapse of certain diseases.
Apart from the wrong antibiotics and other drugs we expose ourselves through self medication and other reckless ways of antibiotic use, the other major way is through feeding on animal products with high antibiotic residues. Such include meat and meat products, eggs and milk and milk products. In poultry, growth promoters are used, this is when antibiotics are added to animal/ poultry feed in small doses. They are considered to improve the quality of the product, with a lower percentage of fat and higher protein content in the meat.
Other benefits of the use of antibiotic growth-promoters include control of zoonotic pathogens such as Salmonella among others. The use of such antibiotics should be limited to when necessary to avoid their entry into the food chain or development of resistance by such organisms.
Professional advise
Meat, milk and eggs are the most consumed in our society more and more research work indicates the presence of high levels of antibiotic residues in these foods. While some antibiotic residues can be destroyed by cooking, it depends on the method of cooking and the temperatures used.
Some antibiotics are broken down by temperatures of over 120degrees centigrade which is not achievable in most rural settings. Some antibiotics such as clindamycin used for treating common bacterial infections will retain about 80 per cent of their activity after various treatments: pasteurisation (80°C), sterilisation (134°C), and drying (100°C). This means that if present in milk, it can be easily ingested by consumers even after such heat treatment. Antibiotics get into the food chain through injections an oral administration of these medicines to animals.
This happens when such medicines are administered in improper doses by qualified and non qualified individuals and when misdiagnoses are made and treatment is offered. When the wrong choice of an antibiotic is made for certain infections it adds up to misuse of the drugs. In cases where antibiotics are used on animals and the owners are not informed of the drug withdrawal period or they knowingly go against such instructions.
The withdrawal period is the time after treatment of an animal that the drug will take to clear from the system. It is usually specified for milk consumption or for the animal to be slaughtered for meat consumption. This time ensures that humans do not consume drugs in low quantities that will end up leading to resistance by various organisms sensitive to such drugs.
Drug resistance is fast becoming a real threat to human and animal lives and it is the role of all of us to ensure drugs especially antibiotics are used appropriately. This can only be done by ensuring we get professional advice before using such drugs on ourselves or our animals.
Always make a point of knowing if your animal health provider has the knowledge and qualifications to use whatever drug on your animals and strictly adhere to defined withdrawal period as this could help save a generation!
