According to a first-ever study by professors at the University of Regina in the United Kingdom, U.S. food safety ranks seventh or “average” among 17 other industrialized nations.1 At least 76 million cases of food-borne disease occur each year in the U.S. While many health problems caused by contaminated food are not serious—with symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, fever, chills, and muscle aches—some food-borne infections are much more dangerous, leading to convulsions, premature delivery and miscarriage, sepsis (blood poisoning), or even death. In all, food tainted with dangerous bacteria and other pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella causes 300,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).2 The death rate from some food-borne illnesses can be surprisingly high; one in five people who become sick from listeriosis (food poisoning caused by the bacteria Listeria) will die from it each year.3
Because of this high incidence of food-borne disease, many health experts are calling for enhanced safety throughout the entire food supply chain—from farm to fork. As the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) explains in a 2008 report, the farm-to-fork approach can improve food safety by covering “every stage of the food production process, starting with how animals are raised and ending when food reaches the consumer.”4 The GAO report states that many other industrialized countries have adopted this approach to food safety in their food and feed laws governing farming, processing, and distribution, including the European Union, Canada, and Japan.
More than 225 hospitals and health care facilities have embraced such principals in the U.S. and have signed the “Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge” to express their commitment to supplying patients with nutritious food raised sustainably, including meat from animals raised without the use of antibiotics unless the farm animals are diagnosed with disease.5 These facilities recognize that the current system of food production in the U.S. needs to be reformed as it is largely reliant upon methods of production and distribution that negatively impact public and environmental health. They argue that we should treat the food system “as preventive medicine that protects the health of patients, staff, and communities.”
1 Researchers compared countries across four major categories: consumer affairs, biosecurity, governance and recalls, and traceability and management. For traceability and management, the U.S. received a “poor” rating, ranking sixteenth. Charlebois, Sylvain and Chris Yost, May 2008, Food Safety Performance World Ranking 2008, Research Network in Food Systems, University of Regina: Saskatchewan, Canada. Abstract available here.
2 CDC food safety website, http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/.
3 U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Fact Sheet: Protect Your Baby and Yourself from Listeriosis.”
4 U.S. Government Accountability Office, June 2008, Food Safety: Selected Countries’ Systems Can Offer Insights into Ensuring Import Safety and Responding to Foodborne Illness.
5 See Health Care Without Harm, http://www.noharm.org/us/food/pledge.
6 Interagency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, A Public Health Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance.
7 Calculations based on: USDA Economic Research Service, Foodborne Illness Cost Calculator: Salmonella; The Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming; and U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System 2005 Executive Report (in 2005, 19.4% of human isolates were resistant, and 6.9% were resistant to at least 5 antimicrobials).
8 Calculations based on: CDC Campylobacter fact sheet, and CDC NARMS, Human Isolates 2005 Final Report.
9 Harrison, P. and Lederberg, J. (eds). 1998. “Antimicrobial Resistance: Issues and Options.” Workshop Report, Forum on Emerging Infections, Division of Health and Sciences Policy, Institute of Medicine. National Academy Press: Washington, D.C.
10 U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). 2004. No. 04-490, Antibiotic Resistance: Federal Agencies Need to Better Focus Efforts to Address Risk to Humans from Antibiotic Use in Animals. See also: White, David G. et al. 2001. The Isolation of Antibiotic-Resistant Salmonella from Retail Ground Meats. The New England Journal of Medicine. 345(16): 1147-1154; Molbak, K. et al. 1999. An Outbreak of Multidrug-Resistant, Quinolone-Resistant Salmonella Enterica Serotype Typhimurium DT104. The New England Journal of Medicine, 341(19): 1420-1425; and Johnson, James R. et al. 2006. Similarity between Human and Chicken Escherichia coli Isolates in Relation
to Ciprofloxacin Resistance Status. Journal of Infectious Diseases 194(1): 71-78.
11 GAO, op. cit. See also: Price, Lance B. et al. 2007. Elevated Risk of Carrying Gentamicin-Resistant Escherichia coli among U.S. Poultry Workers. Environmental Health Perspectives 115(12): 1738-1742; and Smith, Tara C. et al. 2009. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Strain ST398 Is Present in Midwestern U.S. Swine and Swine Workers. PLoS ONE 4(1): 1-6.
12 GAO, op. cit. See also: Chee-Sanford, J. C. et al. 2001. Occurrence and Diversity of Tetracycline Resistance Genes in Lagoons and Groundwater Underlying Two Swine Production Facilities. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 67(4): 1494-1502; Sapkota, A. R. et al. 2005. Antibiotic-Resistant Enterococci and Fecal Indicators in Surface Water and Groundwater Impacted by a Concentrated Swine Feeding Operation. Environmental Health Perspectives 115(7): 1041-1045; and Gibbs, Shawn G. et al. 2005. Isolation of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria from the Air Plume Downwind of a Swine Confined or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation. Environmental Health Perspectives 114(7): 1032-1037.
13 Rule, Ana M., S. L. Evans, and E. K. Silbergeld. 2008. Food animal transport: A potential source of community exposures to health hazards from industrial farming (CAFOs). Journal of Infection and Public Health. 1: 33-39.
14 AMA PAMTA endorsement letter to Rep. Louise Slaughter, April 9, 2009.
15 “Endorsements of the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act,” revised June 14, 2006, at . See also “Keep Antibiotics Working Urges FDA Acting Commissioner to Take Strong, Quick Action to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance Crisis,” April 3, 2009.
16 ACPM, January 23, 2002, “Principles for Combating Antibiotic Resistance,” Policy Resolution # 05-02(A).
17 AMA, 2001, “Antimicrobial Use and Resistance,” Resolution 508.
18 APHA, January 1, 1999, “Addressing the Problem of Bacterial Resistance to Antimicrobial Agents and the Need for Surveillance,” Policy No. 9908.
19 CSTE/NASPHV, 1999, “Discontinuation of antimicrobials used to promote growth of food animals if they are used in or select for cross resistance to antimicrobials used in human therapy,” Position Statement 1999-ID 7.
20 IDSA PAMTA endorsement letter to Sen. Kennedy, June 12, 2007.
21 WHO, 2000, WHO Global Principles for the Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance in Animals Intended for Food, Geneva.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) today introduced the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act, a bipartisan bill that would eliminate certain antibiotic-related practices that contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria and endanger human health. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jack Reed (D-RI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
More infoThis bibliography lists the latest published scientific and economic literature concerning the contribution of routine antibiotic use in food animals to the growing public health crisis of human antibiotic resistance. Research on how antibiotic use in food animal production contributes to the growing health crisis of antibiotic resistance dates back more than 30 years.
More infoPew Charitable Trusts today applauded Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Susan Collins (R-ME), for introducing the Antimicrobial Data Collection Act, which would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, to report more information on the annual sales of antibiotics used among industrial farm animals. The bipartisan bill would also give the agency a deadline to finalize policies proposed last year to eliminate the use of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes in meat production.
More info"As a nation, we need to exercise greater care with our use of antibiotics, in both humans and animals, so that these medications remain effective in treating serious bacterial infections."
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