Beware – the chicken you eat might make you antibiotic-resistant!

Indians love eating chicken and that could be very dangerous for them since large scale, indiscriminate use of antibiotics by the poultry industry is leading to antibiotic resistance in Indians. This in turn leads to them falling prey to common ailments.

The study by the Centre for Science and Environment's (CSE) Pollution Monitoring Lab, which tested 70 chicken samples from the Delhi-NCR region for six commonly used antibiotics - oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline, doxycycline, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and neomycin - found their residues in the chicken samples. 'Many essential and important antibiotics for humans are being used by the poultry industry. In India, there is growing evidence that resistance to fluoroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin is rapidly increasing,' claimed Sunita Narain, director general of CSE.

Treating fatal diseases like sepsis, pneumonia and tuberculosis (TB) with fluoroquinolones is becoming tough because microbes that cause these diseases are increasingly becoming resistant to fluoroquinolones,' she said. The study alleged large scale unregulated use of antibiotics by the poultry industry to promote faster growth of chickens.

'Antibiotics are no more restricted to humans nor limited to treating diseases. The poultry industry uses antibiotics as a growth promoter. Chickens are fed antibiotics so that they gain weight and grow faster,' Narain claimed. 'Common infections are becoming more difficult to treat and antibiotics are becoming ineffective due to increased resistance,' she added.

The study found that 40 percent samples tested positive and residues of more than one antibiotic were found in 17 percent of the samples. CSE's deputy director general Chandra Bhushan said the findings were the tip of the iceberg. 'Public health experts have long suspected that such rampant use of antibiotics in animals could be a reason for increasing antibiotic resistance in India. But the government has no data on the use of antibiotics in the country, let alone on the prevalence of antibiotic resistance,' he said. CSE called upon the government to implement a comprehensive set of regulations including banning use of antibiotics as growth promoters in the poultry industry. 'Not doing this will put lives of people at risk,' warned Narain. India currently has no regulations to control antibiotic use in the poultry industry or to control sales of antibiotics to the industry.

India the antibiotic capital of the world

A recent study found that India as a nation uses antibiotics more indiscriminately than anyone. .

The study found that there is a staggering 62% (8 billion units in 2001 to 12.9 billion units in 2010) increase in the amount of antibiotics popped amongst Indians with an average person taking upwards of 11 pills in a year.

What makes this trend so alarming?

Antibiotics were discovered as a cure for common bacterial infections that were capable of killing humans. While, this invention has saved many lives, the arbitrary use of this drug has led to the formation of antibiotic resistant bacteria. These bacteria are now capable of causing diseases that are quickly becoming incurable. In the current study, the growing fears of antibiotic resistance were confirmed by the finding that there was an increasing resistance to carbapenems and polymixins, two classes of drugs, long considered the last resort antibiotics for illnesses without any other known treatment.

In an earlier report by WHO, the organisation expressed concern about how antibiotic resistance had become a serious threat around the world and had the potential to affect anyone irrespective of region or age. Antibiotic resistance is now a major threat to public health. This trend is quickly putting us on the path of destruction, by sending us back to the dark ages a time when there were no antibiotics and people died of common bacterial infections.

What is antibiotic resistance?

Microorganisms constantly evolve to efficiently adapt to new environments and antibiotic resistance is one such adaptation. The ability of microorganisms to grow in the presence of an antibiotic that would normally kill them or limit their growth is called antimicrobial resistance. The bacteria which have become resistant cause infections which cannot be treated with the usual drugs, dosages or concentrations. Bacteria which have developed resistance to multiple antibiotics are called multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria ormore commonly, superbugs.

With inputs by Pavitra Sampath

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