FARM DRUGS FACE BAN OVER SUPERBUG SCARE!!!

[Guest guest]

* 11/29/98 * INDEPENDENT UK:

Ministers are preparing to ban a clutch of antibiotics - used routinely

by farmers to make animals grow more quickly - which they FEAR are

leading to the CREATION of DEADLY DRUG-RESISTANT SUPERBUGS.....An

influential body of government advisers - charged with reporting on the

effects of using antibiotics in farming - has told ministers that four

widely used drugs should be banned from animal feed.....Ministers are

expected to make an announcement in the next fortnight to the House of

Commons on phasing out the antibiotics. They fear that unless ACTION IS

TAKEN, THE SUPER-BUGS COULD LEAD TO A HUGE HEALTH SCARE SIMILAR TO

" BSE " .....Last week the Government was lobbied by FARMERS and FEED

producers " NOT " TO BAN THE ANTIBIOTICS, WHICH ARE OFTEN ADDED TO

CHICKEN, PIG AND CATTLE FEED.....The move would lead to a massive

overhaul in farming practices and would be a blow to intensive

agriculture and drug companies. But it would be welcomed by public helth

advisers, consumer groups and environmentalists......Government ADVISERS

HAVE WARNED THAT SUPERBUGS, WHICH COULD MUTATE AND BECOME MORE VIRULENT,

COULD LEAD TO INCURABLE AND POTENTIALLY FATAL ILLNESSES.....Last year

the Government's Public Health Laboratory Service reported that one in

six salmonella infections - the commonest cause of food poisoning - WAS

BY A STRAIN RESISTANT TO AT LEAST FOUR DRUGS.....The Government will

stop SHORT of a ban on all growth promoting antibiotics focusing on four

- SPIRAMYCIN, VIRGINIAMYCIN, ZINC BACITRACIN AND TYLOSIN - which have

equivalents used in HUMAN TREATMENT.....Ministry of Agriculture

officials, representing the British government, will THIS WEEK VOTE with

their European counterparts on introducing an EU-wide BAN on the four

growth promoting antibiotics..... " If the government advisers say that

these drugs are banned it's going to change the whole state of play with

intensive farming, " said Bebb of Friends of the Earth. " It could

be very positive for animal welfare and HUMAN HEALTH " .....Experts on the

Working Group on Microbial Resistance in Relation to Food Safety, which

has spent two and half years studying antibiotic resistance in farming,

also want vets to STOP PRESCRIBING SO MANY ANTIBIOTICS TO TREAT SICK

ANIMALS.....AND THEY WARN THAT IGNORANCE OF ANTIBIOTIC USE IN FOOD

PRODUCTION IS MAKING PROPER ASSESSMENT OF THEIR EFFECT DIFFICULT. They

want an official monitoring system set up to keep track.....Souces on

the working group say that the advice will not hurt farmers - already

hit by BSE and low prices for meat - as many antibiotics used in

agriculture have no implications for human health.....////// MADSON!!!