McDonald's Issues Antibiotics Policy

[Guest guest]

Comments?

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

 

McDonald's issues antibiotics policy

 

Chain fears agricultural use could make drugs less effective

Odin Brandseth, 7, at a McDonald's restaurant in Niles, Ill., earlier

this year.

 

By Marc Kaufman

THE WASHINGTON POST

 

http://www.msnbc.com/news/928554.asp?cp1=1

 

WASHINGTON, June 19 — In response to increasingly dire warnings that

widespread use of antibiotics on U.S. farms is making the drugs less

effective for treating people, the fast-food chain McDonald's is

directing some meat suppliers to stop using antibiotic growth

promoters altogether and encouraging others to cut back.

 

THE POLICY being announced today, the broadest in the United States,

focuses on the use of antibiotics in animal feed to speed the

development of livestock — a practice widely seen by researchers as

the least important and most expendable use of important antibiotics.

 

Because McDonald's is the nation's largest purchaser of beef and

among the largest for chicken and pork, its action will noticeably

reduce the amount of antibiotics being used as growth promoters.

Beyond that, consumer and public health advocates as well as

McDonald's executives said they hope the announcement will mark a

turning point in the way U.S. farmers raise animals.

 

`HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT' SHIFT

 

" This is a highly significant policy and change, " said Rebecca

Goldburg of Environmental Defense, an advocacy group that

participated in McDonald's review of its practices. " This policy is

global and it goes beyond anything we have seen from other

companies. "

 

Linda Tollefson, deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug

Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine, who also reviewed

McDonald's proposal, said: " When a very large and international

company does something like this, it's an important step. They will

set the tone in the marketplace. "

 

According to the Animal Health Institute, which represents

manufacturers of drugs for animal use, almost 22 million pounds of

antibiotics were used on farms in 2001. That group estimates that 13

percent to 17 percent of that total is for growth promotion, but the

Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group, has said its

research shows that more than 50 percent of the total could be

considered growth promotion.

 

The McDonald's policy will prohibit its direct suppliers, which

mainly provide chicken, from using 24 growth promoters that are

closely related to antibiotics used in human medicine. The firm, in

deciding which independent farmers will supply its beef, chicken and

pork, will consider it a " favorable factor " if the supplier avoids

growth promoters.

 

The policy will be effective worldwide by the end of 2004 and will

require suppliers to keep records and submit to regular fidyl audits.

Public health and FDA officials said the audits will make the program

considerably stronger than others announced by fast-food competitors

and chicken producers in recent years.

 

BUILDING GERMS' IMMUNITY

 

Overuse of antibiotics on farms and to treat human ailments has made

some old-line antibiotics such as penicillin and tetracycline much

less effective than they once were. Concern that the life cycle of

newer antibiotics called fluoroquinolones would be similarly cut

short has spurred doctors and public health officials to action.

 

The use of small but regular amounts of antibiotics in animal feed —

which helps the animals grow quickly — inevitably leads bacteria in

the animals to evolve into forms that are immune to the antibiotics'

effects. Those resistant bacteria can be transferred to people, who

will not be helped by related antibiotics they might need should they

become sick.

 

Efforts to reduce antibiotic use have focused on growth promoters

because speeding the growth of farm animals is not considered a

high-priority use. The European Union voted to ban the practice in

1998.

 

The FDA has also sought to reduce overuse of antibiotics, but the

effort has had little effect on U.S. farms. An FDA effort to ban an

animal antibiotic called Baytril, a fluoroquinolone related to the

human antibiotic Cipro, triggered a lengthy regulatory appeals

process by Bayer Corp.

 

Participants in the McDonald's effort offered their model as a way to

make progress.

 

" They brought together all the stakeholders and looked at the science

and came up with a policy that will encourage the sustainable use of

antibiotics on the farm, " said Dennis Erpelding, manager for

corporate affairs of Elanco Animal Health, one of the five largest

producers of drugs for animals.

 

The McDonald's policy accepts the use of antibiotics to treat sick

animals and to prevent and control disease outbreaks on farms. Some

activists have said that could allow farmers to continue using growth

promoters, which do not require a prescription, under the pretext of

disease control and prevention.

 

Overall antibiotic use on European farms has dropped considerably

since a ban on growth promoters began to be phased in there, and

resistance to antibiotics has declined. But reports show antibiotics

are being used more frequently to treat sick animals.

 

SOME DISSENTERS

 

The Animal Health Institute, in a statement by Vice President Ron

Phillips, said there is no scientific basis for the McDonald's

policy. " Europe, as the result of a non-science based policy, has

removed the use of antibiotics as growth promoters, and as a result

has sparked a dramatic increase in animal disease and the use of

antibiotics to treat that disease, " he said.

 

McDonald's has been an industry leader on issues such as animal

welfare and recycling after coming under concerted public pressure.

 

" We would love to be a catalyst for change industry-wide on

antibiotic use, " said Robert Langert, McDonald's senior director for

social responsibility. " People have been arguing about this all night

and day, but now we're taking some practical steps and expect we'll

make some real progress. "

[Guest guest]

Well, at least that is one step in the right direction!

Carol

 

 

Misty L. Trepke [mistytrepke]

Thursday, June 26, 2003 12:20 AM

 

[s-A] McDonald's Issues Antibiotics Policy

 

Comments?

Misty L. Trepke

 

McDonald's issues antibiotics policy

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Don't you just LOVE when a company or government agency tries to

sound so compassionate and interested in our health and welfare, only

AFTER they are bombarded by protests and public outcries????

 

They make this BIG spectacle and media ploy acting like they are

being " pro-active " . Ironically, they failed to ever tell you what

their underhanded and " barely legal " practices were until they are

CAUGHT!

 

Just MORE VALIDATION that it's up to US to be educated, informed and

involved in our health and what we put INTO OUR BODIES!!!!!

 

Keep the good stuff coming Misty!!!! APPLAUSE! APPLAUSE!!!

 

====================

Bryan & Pam Crabtree

extendyourhealth