29 October 2001
The Greens are calling on the Government to curb the agricultural over-use of antibiotics, following publication of
research which shows that harmful bacteria in meat and poultry are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
The resistance is due to the widespread agricultural practice of feeding antibiotics to healthy animals.
The latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine recommends that the practice of feeding antibiotics to animals
to promote growth should be banned, following confirmation that up to 84 per cent of common strains of bacteria of
animal origin, such as salmonella, are resistant to at least one type of antibiotic, while 53 per cent are resistant to
three different antibiotics.
Green Party Health spokesperson Sue Kedgley said 57 per cent of all antibiotics in New Zealand - or 53 tonnes of
antibiotics - are fed to farm animals in New Zealand.
At least a quarter of these antibiotics are routinely fed to perfectly healthy animals such as chickens in their
commercially prepared feed to make them grow faster and to prevent the spread of disease in intensive agriculture.
"The government should ban the practice of using antibiotics as growth promotants, and make it illegal to feed
antibiotics to farm animals without veterinary approval," Ms Kedgley said.
"When you and I want to use an antibiotic, we have to get a prescription from the doctor. The same rules should apply to
animals. They should not be available 'over the counter'."
Ms Kedgley said it had been well known for years that the over-use of antibiotics in farm animals results in the
emergence of resistant bacteria in food, and 'superbugs' which can infect humans.
At present there is no control on the sale and use of antibiotics which are fed to animals without a veterinary
prescription.
"Scientists have been warning for years that it is only a matter of time before antibiotics will become ineffective in
treating many human disease," she said.
"If we don't move swiftly, medical advances of the past 50 years could be undermined by these unsustainable farming
practices," she said.
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