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Showing posts with the label antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

APPEARING TODAY IN A JOINT ISSUE OF THE ROBLIN REVIEW AND RUSSELL BANNER.

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Is Canada’s hog industry doing its part to counter antibiotic resistance, now considered a world health crisis? The most recent “report card” available seems to say, “no!”

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by Larry Powell Prairie producers were feeding more antibiotics to their pigs in 2018 than 2017.  Antibiotics have been bestowing a world of good on the human condition ever since - and even before - Alexander Fleming discovered the most famous one - penicillin - almost a century ago. Thanks to their ability to counter deadly infections - life expectancies have increased dramatically - and millions of lives have been saved - truly a turning point in the history of mankind.  But storm clouds have been gathering over this “age of enlightenment” for some time now. It’s called “Antimicrobial resistance.” AMR happens when antibiotics are used too much, or for the wrong reasons. This does happen when treating people. However, as our own Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) makes clear, the real story lies elsewhere. “There’s increasing evidence,” PHAC warns on its website, “that the use of antimicrobial agents in veterinary medicine and livestock production is an important contributing fact

'Silent superbug killers in a river near you,' including Spain, the US, Thailand and Manitoba, Canada.

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World Animal Protection    Public waterways next to industrial farms in Manitoba contain antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) that are dangerous to public health says a report from the global charity World Animal Protection.  The report is the first multi-country investigation of its kind.  Farmer Jeff Linton of Linton Pasture Pork, a high welfare farm in Ontario inspects one of his piglets. He is against all forms of industrial farming practices, including overcrowding animals which can cause stress and sickness leading to routine antibiotic use for disease prevention. World Animal Protection applauds farmers like Jeff who put the welfare of the animals first. Credit: Nina Devries/World Animal Protection Date: August 2019. (CNW Group/World Animal Protection) ARGs should be of concern because they are the building blocks for "superbugs" (bacteria that have developed resistance to one or more antibiotics).  This means those antibiotics will be less or ineffective in treating inf

Will the world’s addiction to industrial livestock production bring an end to the age of the “miracle drug?”

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by Larry Powell -  *Hog Watch Manitoba  (Note: Asterisks link   to references at bottom.) A pork processing plant in Neepawa, MB.  Photo credit - HyLifeFoods. Antibiotics have been bestowing a world of good on the human condition ever since Alexander Fleming discovered the most famous one - penicillin - almost a century ago. Thanks to their ability to counter deadly infections, millions of lives have been saved -  truly a turning point in the history of mankind. But, for some years now, clouds have been gathering. Numerous agencies, from the **World Health Organization (WHO) to our own ***Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), have been sounding similar alarm bells. All the wondrous benefits inherent in these life-saving medications may already be in jeopardy.  As PHAC states on its website, “There’s increasing evidence that the use of antimicrobial agents in veterinary medicine and livestock production is an important contributing factor in the emergence of bacteria in people which h

Despite long-standing and widespread warnings of the dangers, hog producers on the Canadian prairies were still feeding more antibiotics to their pigs in 2018 than they did the year before. (Latest figures available.)

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by Larry Powell (Updated - Mar. 5th, 2021) A Canadian Pork Council photo. In 2019, an elite panel of experts - The Council of Canadian Academies -  confirmed that thousands of Canadians were already dying each year of  "antimicrobial resistance (AMR)." And, with that resistance still growing, up to 400 thousand will likely die  of it  by mid-century. It calls the problem,   “a serious existential threat.”  And, if anyone needs more convincing, here's how Canada's own Chief Public Health Officer puts it.  " Left unchecked, there's risk of losing these medications as an essential life-saving treatment. It's estimated that antibiotic-resistant infections could cause 10 million deaths a year, globally by 2050. This is more than the current annual worldwide deaths from cancer." AMR happens when  too many antibiotics are given (when they're not needed), not only to people, but mostly to livestock (domestic animals raised for food), like cattle, pigs