Meat Eaters Under Threat of Antibiotic Resistance

India, long associated with the spread of superbug ‘New Delhi metallo-beta lactamase-1’ and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, has now been identified as one of the global hotspots of rising antibiotic resistance among animals as well.

Other hotspots include China, Pakistan, Vietnam, Turkey, Brazil and South Africa, says a review study jointly done by Princeton University and Delhi-based Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy and published in Science journal Thursday night.

Antibiotics are added to animal feed to make them healthier. The study said that increasing demand for animal protein in lower middle-income countries had led to increased production (rearing of food-animals) using antibiotics liberally.

In May, a local study from Mumbai published in ‘Acta Scientific Microbiology’ journal showed resistance in chicken liver meat and eggs collected from poultry shops across 12 locations in the city. That study tested the samples for bacteria salmonella that was resistant to widely used antibiotics such as amoxicillin, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, gentamicin, levofloxacin, nitrofurantoin and tetracycline.

Now, the CDDEP study has said that antibiotic resistance is seen in several food-animals across the globe. “It is of particular concern that it is rising in low- and middle-income countries because this is where meat consumption is growing the fastest while access to veterinary antimicrobials remains largely unregulated,” said the study, adding that animals nowadays consume three times as many antibiotics as humans.

The study’s main author, CDDEP’s Ramanan Laxminarayan, said: “The study found the proportion of antimicrobial compounds in food animals that showed resistance higher than 50 % increased overall between 2000 and 2018.”

The trend is dangerous because increase in antibiotic-resistant infections among animals will finally affect humans as well.

Source:ToI

Image Courtesy: The Week