Fast food chains under pressure to stop the spread of Superbugs

By NEOnline | 

Consumers are demanding from McDonald’s to stop using meat with antibiotics. The hope is their policy could make a difference in agricultural practices that are threatening global health. The initiative is taken by US-based civic groups; Europe has yet to follow.

US campaign

Citizens’ initiatives spearheaded by ShareAction are trying to mobilize consumers to halt the use of antibiotics in agriculture. The use of antibiotics in the agricultural sector is primarily responsible for the emergence of drug-resistant Superbugs that can threaten global health. The campaign estimates that as much as 70% of antibiotics in the US make their way to the food chain through animal husbandry; this is 50% for the U.K.

ShareAction is trying to promote responsible corporate governance, changing investment patterns and are now calling on the public to e-mail the McDonald’s CEO, Steve Easterbrook.

Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut are also under pressure from a number consumer groups.

The campaign is yielding some results. McDonalds recently committed to stopping using poultry treated with antibiotics; Wendy’s announced they will follow in 2017, but will extend this to a more comprehensive policy that will include pork and beef.

But, this discussion concerns the US only. Europeans will continue eating chicken and animals filled with antibiotics.

the danger

Drug-resistant “Superbug” infections are estimated to kill 23,000 Americans a year. But, this is a global threat. In May the US was confronted with a strain of bacteria resistant to drugs known as mcr-1, a “superbad” resistant to antibiotics.

The urinary tract infection was found on a 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania that had not travelled for the last five months. She visited a clinic on April 26 for treatment. Doctors are still unclear on how she contracted the virus.

The patient was treated with gene therapy, which is the last line of defense against antibiotic-resistant superbugs. The particular strain was found a year ago in pigs and humans in China. Two similar cases have been reported in the past in the UK and Italy.

Worryingly, the Pennsylvania patient did not react positively to Colistin, a powerful antibiotic used in the 1960s, but abandoned in the 1980s because of its toxicity. It is now used only exceptionally as a measure of last resort, on humans that is.

Colistin was used in the West to treat E.coli, salmonella, and acinetobacter. To treat these very viruses, the antibiotic is still widely used widely in agriculture, entering the food chain. Also on Thursday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) warned that the use of colistin should be reduced to avoid the emergence of drug resistance. Colistin is used extensively in agriculture in China, where the mcr-1 strain was discovered.

A recently published paper links antibiotics use in agriculture with greenhouse emissions, besides increased resistance to bugs on humans.

Research on a new generation of antibiotics has fallen behind as pharmaceuticals are prioritizing research on previously incurable diseases that command high prices and profits. In January Pfizer, Merck & Co, Johnson & Johnson, and GlaxoSmithKline signed a petition asking for research “incentives” from governments.