Poultry waste raising antibiotics resistance

Increasing use of antibiotics in animals to promote growth and protect against infections is resulting in  large-scale antibiotic resistance, in not only poultry farm soil, but also soil from agricultural lands nearby due  to poor waste management, a study released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found on Thursday.

''The study shows that the antibiotic resistance in the poultry animals is travelling outside the farms through animal litter. By all logic, and comparing this study to international ones, we can say that this antibiotic resistance enters the food chain through the animals and crops and then moves onto the water cycle through ground water and then drinking water,'' said Amit Khurana, programme manager, Food Safety and Toxins at CSE and one of the authors of the report 'Antibiotic Resistance in Poultry Environment', Hindustan Times reported.

47 soil samples were collected from poultry farms in UP, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab and 217 isolates of three common bacteria E coli, K pneumoniae and S lentus  were isolated from these samples. These bacteria cause diarrhoea, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, bloodstream infections, pelvic inflammation and even septic shock in humans.

The bacteria samples were tested for 13 antibiotics and the researchers found that most of the samples were resistant to these drugs.

The study - 'Antibiotic Resistance in Poultry Environment' -found that misuse of antibiotics in animals is leading to proliferation of multidrug resistant bacteria, which has a potential to infect human beings.

With increasing anti-microbial resistance effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, urinary tract infection (UTI) and even HIV is being threatened.

Also even as countries struggle with the problem of increased drug resistance, India continues to primarily struggle with antibiotic resistance which is posing an increasing threat to treating infectious diseases, and also undermining many other advances in medicine.