The European ban on growth-promoting antibiotics and emerging consequences for human and animal health
TLDR
The theoretical and political benefit of the widespread ban of growth promoters needs to be more carefully weighed against the increasingly apparent adverse consequences.Abstract:
Following the ban of all food animal growth-promoting antibiotics by Sweden in 1986, the European Union banned avoparcin in 1997 and bacitracin, spiramycin, tylosin and virginiamycin in 1999. Three years later, the only attributable effect in humans has been a diminution in acquired resistance in enterococci isolated from human faecal carriers. There has been an increase in human infection from vancomycin-resistant enterococci in Europe, probably related to the increased in usage of vancomycin for the treatment of methicillin-resistant staphylococci. The ban of growth promoters has, however, revealed that these agents had important prophylactic activity and their withdrawal is now associated with a deterioration in animal health, including increased diarrhoea, weight loss and mortality due to Escherichia coli and Lawsonia intra- cellularis in early post-weaning pigs, and clostridial necrotic enteritis in broilers. A directly attributable effect of these infections is the increase in usage of therapeutic antibiotics in food animals, including that of tetracycline, aminoglycosides, trimethoprim/sulphonamide, macrolides and lincosamides, all of which are of direct importance in human medicine. The theoretical and political benefit of the widespread ban of growth promoters needs to be more carefully weighed against the increasingly apparent adverse conse- quences.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Does the use of antibiotics in food animals pose a risk to human health? A critical review of published data
Ian R. Phillips,Mark Casewell,Tony Cox,Brad de Groot,Christian Friis,Ronald N. Jones,Charles H. Nightingale,Rodney Preston,John Waddell +8 more
TL;DR: The application of the 'precautionary principle' is a non-scientific approach that assumes that risk assessments will be carried out, and anti-Gram-positive growth promoters would be expected to have little effect on most Gram-negative organisms.
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History of the Use of Antibiotic as Growth Promoters in European Poultry Feeds
TL;DR: The European support to recommendations of the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Organization for Animal Health for a ban on antimicrobial use in animal feeds is expected to favor other countries also phase out these substances out.
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The role of the natural environment in the emergence of antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria
Elizabeth M. H. Wellington,Alistair B.A. Boxall,Paul C. Cross,Edward J. Feil,William H. Gaze,Peter M. Hawkey,Peter M. Hawkey,Ashley S. Johnson-Rollings,Davey L. Jones,Nick Lee,Wilfred Otten,Christopher M. Thomas,A. Prysor Williams +12 more
TL;DR: Although the economics of the pharmaceutical industry continue to restrict investment in novel biomedical responses, action must be taken to avoid the conjunction of factors that promote evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance.
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Microbial drug discovery: 80 years of progress
Arnold L. Demain,Sergio Sánchez +1 more
TL;DR: This review centers on these beneficial secondary metabolites, the discovery of which goes back 80 years to the time when penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming.
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Probiotics and prebiotics in animal feeding for safe food production
TL;DR: The current knowledge on the contribution of the gut microbiota to host well-being is discussed and available information on probiotics and prebiotics and their application in animal feeding is reviewed.
References
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Journal Article
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Dawn M. Sievert,Matthew L. Boulton,G. Stoltman,David W. Johnson,Mary Grace Stobierski,William J. Brown,W Hafeez,T Lundstrom,E Flanagan,R. Johnson,James E. Mitchell,S Chang +11 more
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TL;DR: The reasons for the emergence and spread of vancomycin-resistant enterococci are not yet fully understood, but various hypotheses and proposals which are being vigorously and extensively debated have been advanced.
Journal ArticleDOI
Decreased incidence of VanA-type vancomycin-resistant enterococci isolated from poultry meat and from fecal samples of humans in the community after discontinuation of avoparcin usage in animal husbandry.
TL;DR: The results likely indicate the importance of antibiotic selective pressure by glycopeptides such as AVO for the presence of VRE in animal meat products from commercial animal husbandry and underlines the role of animal products for the spread of resistant bacteria and transferable resistance genes to humans in the community.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Swedish experience of the 1986 year ban of antimicrobial growth promoters, with special reference to animal health, disease prevention, productivity, and usage of antimicrobials.
TL;DR: The AMGP ban has shown that under good production conditions it is possible to reach good and competitive production results for the rearing of poultry, calves, and pigs without the continuous use of AMGP, and the total use of antibacterial drugs to animals in Sweden decreased by approximately 55% during the last 13 years, and a relatively low prevalence of antimicrobial resistance has been maintained.
Journal ArticleDOI
The effect of banning avoparcin on VRE carriage in The Netherlands
TL;DR: It is shown that, within 2 years of stopping the use of avoparcin, the prevalence and numbers of VRE have decreased significantly, not only in the faecal flora of food animals but also in the endogenous flora of healthy humans, and the significant decrease in prevalence of enterococci resistant against dalfopristin/quinupristin in all three populations studied.
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