Antibiotics cause food concerns
By Wang Xiang |
April 13, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SOME meat and dairy products from northern China are often reportedly tainted with antibiotics as farmers give animals regular doses to prevent sickness.
Farmers in Shaanxi Province generally put erythromycin, a common antibiotic to treat bacterial infections, in feed, Outlook Weekly news magazine quoted a village chicken farmer as saying yesterday.
His village is a key chicken-production center and more than half of its 800 families are in the business.
All chicken farmers were secretly using antibiotics on poultry, the magazine said.
Long-term consumption of this meat could increase the number of drug-resistant bacteria in people, it added.
In a dairy village in Shaanxi, penicillin is the antibiotic of choice. Dairy farmer Xu Yifeng told the magazine that his 14 cows consumed more than a dozen buckets of penicillin last year.
Shaanxi is a big farming base and its products find their way nationwide.
There are 11 million head of cattle and 60 million birds farmed in the province.
The overuse of antibiotics on animals is routine in farming around the country, which is a worrying trend because of the potential human fallout, according to Wang Jinjue, the dean of a veterinary science school in Shaanxi.
Wang said antibiotics could accumulate over the long term in human bodies and harm vital organs.
"I feel that today's chickens are much weaker than 20 years ago," said poultry farmer Luo Ruifeng.
Luo told the magazine he was compelled to use antibiotics or suffer heavy losses, citing the death of 3,000 chickens at the beginning of the year.
Wang said livestock were raised in a much more confined area these days, increasing the chances of animals catching diseases from each other.
Some farmers skip vaccines and turn to cheaper antibiotics. Others have added antibiotics to feed to help animals gain weight, the magazine said.
Antibiotics are banned from livestock feed in more than 90 member countries of the World Health Organization.
Chinese law stipulates that animals must be free of antibiotics a minimum of three days before death, a rule that is often ignored by farmers, according to the magazine.
Farmers in Shaanxi Province generally put erythromycin, a common antibiotic to treat bacterial infections, in feed, Outlook Weekly news magazine quoted a village chicken farmer as saying yesterday.
His village is a key chicken-production center and more than half of its 800 families are in the business.
All chicken farmers were secretly using antibiotics on poultry, the magazine said.
Long-term consumption of this meat could increase the number of drug-resistant bacteria in people, it added.
In a dairy village in Shaanxi, penicillin is the antibiotic of choice. Dairy farmer Xu Yifeng told the magazine that his 14 cows consumed more than a dozen buckets of penicillin last year.
Shaanxi is a big farming base and its products find their way nationwide.
There are 11 million head of cattle and 60 million birds farmed in the province.
The overuse of antibiotics on animals is routine in farming around the country, which is a worrying trend because of the potential human fallout, according to Wang Jinjue, the dean of a veterinary science school in Shaanxi.
Wang said antibiotics could accumulate over the long term in human bodies and harm vital organs.
"I feel that today's chickens are much weaker than 20 years ago," said poultry farmer Luo Ruifeng.
Luo told the magazine he was compelled to use antibiotics or suffer heavy losses, citing the death of 3,000 chickens at the beginning of the year.
Wang said livestock were raised in a much more confined area these days, increasing the chances of animals catching diseases from each other.
Some farmers skip vaccines and turn to cheaper antibiotics. Others have added antibiotics to feed to help animals gain weight, the magazine said.
Antibiotics are banned from livestock feed in more than 90 member countries of the World Health Organization.
Chinese law stipulates that animals must be free of antibiotics a minimum of three days before death, a rule that is often ignored by farmers, according to the magazine.
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