National Chicken Council to Phase Out Some Poultry Antibiotics

Only about 10 percent of the antibiotics used in chicken are actually used to treat humans, says the National Chicken Council. Its statement comes on the heels of a controversial report by Reuters indicating increasing proof that the prophylactic medications used in chickens are fueling antibiotic resistance not just in fowl, but in humans as well.

In a statement yesterday, the NCC refuted these assertions, claiming that only a small portion of the antibiotics that Reuters journalist Kate Kelland examined – about 10 percent – were also given to humans. The rest of the antibiotics used in fowl do not treat human populations.

“All antibiotics used to prevent and treat disease in chickens are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The majority of these antibiotics are never used in human medicine and therefore represent no threat of creating resistance in humans,” said Ashley Peterson, NCC vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs.

That said, Peterson announced, new changes are on the horizon for those meds that are also used in human populations.

“While minimally used in raising chickens, by December 2016, these antibiotics that are important to human medicine will be labeled for use in food animals only to prevent and treat disease, under the supervision and care of a veterinarian,” he said. He likened the future guidelines to those applied to treatments applied to other animals. “Much like a companion animal veterinarian would use de-worming compounds to prevent illness in puppies and kitten,” Peterson said, the antibiotics would be used to treat opportunistic illnesses not treated by other medications. He did not specify how often that need arises in poultry.

Kelland’s report included statements by Britain’s chief medical officer, who called antibiotic resistance a “catastrophic threat.” Dame Sally Davies  said “superbugs” are the culprit, and they are being fueled by over-exposure to antibiotics, including in our food.

“If we don't act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can't be treated by antibiotics.”

NCC took Reuters to task for not consulting industry specialists before publishing the report, which they felt leaves the reader “with hypothetical comments from a few sources.”

Antibiotic resistance has, however, been a concern for more than a half-century, when antibiotics were first developed and over-used at start. Studies by researchers at Tufts University in 2011 backed up that discovery, noting that “[substantial] data show elevated antibiotic resistance in bacteria associated with animals fed NTAs (nontherapeutic antimicrobials) and their food products. This resistance spreads to other animals and humans—directly by contact and indirectly via the food chain, water, air, and manured and sludge-fertilized soils.”

Studies in 2007 (and more recently) have also shown that puppies and kittens are also subject to the same risk of antibiotic resistance, as are other animals used for agricultural purposes.

Image credit: USDA