Michael Carlos Santayana
Professor. Westover
ENGL 1301.
April 30, 2016
Our Use of Antibiotics is a Mirror
of Our Souls
Antibiotics have saved millions of
lives but their overuse on healthy farm animals is threatening their
effectiveness on people. As I write this paper I am taking antibiotics to
combat an infection on my right eyelid from a sty. I look like a boxer who has
taken too many hits to the eye but the antibiotics are helping. Besides treating minor infections,
antibiotics save millions of lives a year. In the 1940s, the first widespread
use of penicillin dramatized the power of antibiotics; thousands of wounded World
War II soldiers, who previously would have died from infections miraculously
survived. Antibiotics kills bacteria, fungi, and parasites that left untreated
could have killed their human hosts.
An Antibiotic is a predator fungus
that preys upon a specific harmful bacteria as explained by SciShow. Alexander
Fleming in 1928 discovered that a mold had grown on a petri dish of
staphylococcus, a killer bacteria during the World War. This mold was
penicillin and it was consuming the bacteria. Penicillin became the world’s
first antibacterial or antibiotic. Penicillin was used by the allied troops to
fight staphylococcus so they could live to fight the Axis troops. Antibiotics developed
by researchers are often deadly to specific bacteria and so they can be called
antimicrobials.
But sick people are not the only
ones who use antibiotics for healing. Sick animals are often healed by them.
While 7.7 million pounds of antibiotics were used on people last year, animals
were given 29.9 million pounds of antibiotics according to a TEDxManhattan. Almost all the
antibiotics given to animals are given at huge factory farms where thousands of
animals live tightly packed on concrete floors, never seeing the sun, wallowing
in vast amounts of feces. This unclean environment is festering with bacteria. It
would be understandable if these animals became sick with infections and
diseases.
Interestingly enough, less than 20%
of the antibiotics given to cattle, turkeys, chickens and pigs are administered
to heal them from an infection or illness according to the article Pros and Cons of Antibiotic Feedings
(PCAF). The antibiotics are administered in low but steady doses for a
different purpose than treating disease. This may be creating superbugs harmful
for the rest of society, because the low or incomplete dose leaves a small
percentage of surviving bacteria resistant to the antibiotic, these bacteria
are called superbugs. This is similar to how we receive a flu shot, we become
resistant to the flu because our body can work against a smaller bit of it and
prepare for future invasions. Remember, America is one of the top producers of
food in the world.
The antibiotics are administered in
low, steady dose and it is an effective tactic. These low doses in the animal
feed prevent infection from taking hold but for reasons that are not completely
clear, they also stimulate the animal to grow 4% to 5% faster, and the lifespan
is extended, according to PCAF. In
highly competitive markets, this faster growth rate boosts profit margins and
modern farming is not about subsistence; modern farming is all about revenue
and profit margin. However there is a risk drawn that was foreseen by the
original discoverer of the medicine, Alexander Fleming “…There us the danger
that the ignorant man may easily under dose himself and by exposing his
microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.” (Nobel Prize
lecture). These companies, by under dosing animals, increased the risk for the
rest of society for the sake of their own profit.
Agribusinesses defend the use of
antibiotics in factory farms as an absolute necessity and they describe their
removal in apocalyptic terms; animals will get sick and die and people will not
be far behind. If you watch one of the many professionally produced videos on
YouTube defending the use of low dose antibiotics, their use is not just
justified, it is logical and necessary. Steady safety measures to prevent
illnesses would make plenty of sense in most cases as opposed to acting before
it is too late. However, as Mary n McKenna writes in National Geographic’s, this method is almost indelibly necessary
when the food is raised in these “confined condition.” The factory farms are
breeding grounds for diseases plus the low doses turn a farm of milk, egg, or beef
into a farm of super bugs. Though Companies use Antibiotics instead of changing
the method of farming by improving conditions and hygiene.
The FDA may be closing
in on the use of Antibiotics as a replacement for growth hormones, yet the use
of it is still increasing. Mary McKenna also covers this alarming race of
missuses, “Since the FDA began asking companies to count, antibiotic
use in meat animals has risen by 16 percent. In 2012, animals received 14.61
million kilograms of antibiotics, or 32.23 million pounds per year.” This creates
strains of superbugs that are making the strongest weapon in the arsenal of
modern medicine increasingly ineffective and outdated as families everywhere
remain defenseless to super bugs entering the body through a simple cut or an
undercooked food.
People fight antibiotic abuse in the world of human medicine.
The most common abuses involve two mistakes; resorting to antibiotics when they
are not unnecessary and also not finishing the prescribed amount when you start
to feel better. There is no controversy regarding these bad practices, they are
universally condemned. The situation in Agriculture is very different. The similarity
is undeniable but both the pharmaceutical and agribusiness industries are
resisting change. The analogy is clear but abuse of veterinary antibiotics will
be stopped only after considerable struggle. The advantages of their abuse are
both clear and tempting; money. Individuals and companies can contribute to their
community by the appropriate use of antibiotics. The patient who only uses
antibiotics when they are needed and then diligently completes the dosage
prescribed is fulfilling their moral obligation to be a good citizen and not
endanger the lives of others.
If I take too many Tylenols, I may damage my liver and
suffer a painful death. If I abuse antibiotics and take low or incomplete doses
too often, I may not die, but I may turn my body into a superbug factory that
could infect and wipe out the family living next door. Individuals can understand
the obligation they have to their fellow human beings. It is time to appeal to
that side of the humanity of those running agribusinesses and ask them to
become good corporate citizens. However, if the pressure to meet profit goals
and fulfill investor expectations is too high, it may be necessary to pass
legislation mandating less crowding, better hygiene and overall better
conditions for our farm animals. Then and only then, the blanket use of
antibiotics on all farm animals can be safely reduced. When we accomplish this,
which we must, it will not just be a safer world, we will be in a more humane
world; a world where we do not have to live in fear and shame when we think
about how we feed ourselves.
Bibliography
Eye, Jenn.
Paulson, Jen. Rager, joe. “Pros and Cons
of Antibiotics in Livestock Feed” www.udel.edu
. C465. University of Delaware. March 14, 1999. URL. April 28, 2016.
McKenna, Maryn. “Farm Antibiotic Use: Getting Worse Before It (Maybe) Gets Better”. theplate.nationalgeographic.com .
National Geographic. October 24, 2014. URL. April 28,
2016
“Antimicrobials in Livestock Debated”
beefmagazine.com. Beef Magazine. June 15, 2009. URL. April
28, 2016.
Price, Lance. “Factory farms,
antibiotics and superbugs: Lance Price at TEDxManhattan” video. TEDxTalks.
YouTube. March 11, 2014. Film. April 30, 2016
“Attack of
the Super Bugs” video.
SciShow. YouTube. April 17, 2014. Film. April 27, 2016
<https://youtu.be/a-apdGwBPz4>
"Sir
Alexander Fleming - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 1 May 2016.
<http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-facts.html>
