Health chicken full of antibiotics

Antibiotics are used on a large scale in the rearing of chickens. In addition to animal rights and environmental protection, antibiotic resistance plays an important role. The Greens call for stricter controls and rules for drug use in the poultry sector.

(25.10.2010) Low-fat, inexpensive and so far spared scandals like BSE, chicken meat is considered by many Germans to be the supposedly healthy alternative. Therefore, consumption has risen sharply in recent years. But the downsides, especially in the production of chicken meat come more and more to light. For example, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed to radio station NDR Info that mowers in conventional chicken farming are using more and more antibiotics. The Lower Saxony parliamentary group of the Greens therefore demands stricter rules and controls from the state government.

24 animals per square meter
About one month, broilers get old before ending up in the slaughterhouse. Whereby most of these short lives in Germany begin and end in the state of Lower Saxony. In the federal state with the highest poultry density, more than half of all chicken farms are located throughout Germany. In order to meet the increasing demand of the consumers, an ever higher utilization of the production facilities can be observed. The so-called stocking density of broilers currently stands at an average of 39 kilos or around 24 animals per square meter. The crowding in the fattening farms, however, increases the risk of disease, so that breeders increasingly resort to antibiotics. The Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture told NDR Info that ten years ago an average of 1.7 antibiotic treatments were used per fattening pass, today it is about 2.3 treatments.

Antibiotics use is increasing
This gives consumer advocates and the politicians of the opposition to think particularly because actually since 2006, the males no antibiotics may feed as growth promoters, so that a decrease in the days of treatment was expected. Antibiotics may only be prescribed by the veterinarian for the treatment of diseases, not provisionally, let alone to promote growth. Nevertheless, the consumption of antibiotics is steadily increasing. The breeders seem to use all the possibilities that can justify the administration of antibiotics. For example, if an animal is ill, all chickens in the appropriate fattening farm receive antibiotics. Usually, however, several tens of thousands of animals live in a stable. The veterinarian Rupert Ebner told NDR Info: "So there is a ban on antibiotics as a growth promoter, but still more antibiotics given - that is absurd and dangerous for humans“.

Medication use in the rearing of chickens the rule
According to Heidemarie Helmsmüller, head of the Department of Consumer Protection and Animal Health of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture, the chickens in factory farming would often not survive until the end of their fattening period without the use of antibiotics, so that the use of the product in practice would be a thing of the past. On the information given by the Ministry regarding the days of antibiotics treatment, the former head of the Veterinary Office in Cloppenburg, Hermann Focke, particularly critical. As in human medicine, the animals are usually treated with antibiotics for several days, which usually lasts more than two days. For example, Focke estimates that the actual number of antibiotic treatment days is much higher, taking into account information from the ministry published in a veterinary journal. Three to six antibiotic treatments with a correspondingly high number of days of treatment are not uncommon. "That's why we can assume that broilers often get about two-thirds of their lifetime antibiotics - they live only 32 days," said Hermann Focke.

Derogation for poultry industry
Exact figures on the total amount of medicines given in Germany are not yet available and the poultry industry has probably argued for good reason against the introduction of a registration of drug delivery by postcode regions. Because it would be relatively clear which farms use how much antibiotics and whether the legal requirements are met. From 2012, according to the federal ordinance, it should be recorded in a file in which postal code region how many medicines are delivered. For the poultry industry, however, an exception was made because of data protection concerns, according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. However, critics clearly see the result of intensive lobbying by the poultry industry towards the Lower Saxony state government. Several times in the past, the lack of distance between government officials and poultry breeders was sharply criticized by the opposition.

Danger: formation of resistance
Now several veterinarians have joined with NDR Info these critical voices and doubted the justification of the exception. So Rupert Ebner said:„It is a scandal that there should not be any disaggregated data in the poultry industry. "He assumes that the poultry industry should have put a lot of pressure on politics in order to move the decision in the current direction, according to the Ministry of Agriculture by Mrs. Helmsmüller that one would have welcomed detailed figures, not least from the point of view of consumer protection, because the frivolous use of antibiotics can lead to pathogens forming resistance, ie the funds are ineffective in an emergency.

Greens call for enlightenment
As a result of the NDR Info reporting, the Greens parliamentary group called on the Lower Saxony state government to tighten controls and rules for the use of drugs in the poultry industry. "The apparently uncontrolled increase in the use of antibiotics and the associated health risks for consumers are a scandal," said Christian Meyer, agronomist of the Greens and added that it would be unacceptable if people instead of healthy meat increasingly antibiotic-resistant chemical chicken on the plate.

In addition, his party was irritated by a possible influence of the Lower Saxony state government on the planned federal ordinance in the sense of poultry farmers. Therefore, the Greens promptly with a small request from the state government clarification. With the zip code breakdown would have „In the Masthochburgen Emsland and Cloppenburg-Vechta you can see very quickly, whether there are illegally overdraft promoters, "an exception to the rule is accordingly annoying explained the green-agricultural expert Meyer.So, according to his party has clarified whether and in what way Lower Saxony has influenced this exemption for the poultry sector. "In previous surveys, the country has claimed that there is no data on the extent of drug use. Now new numbers appear. If, in the sense of the poultry lobby, it had deliberately been hushed up and veiled in order to enforce the controversial chicken highways and hundreds of animal factories, that would be scandalous! "Meyer emphasized. (Fp, 25.10.2010)

Also read:
Alternatives to antibiotics from naturopathy
Doctors often prescribe unnecessary antibiotics
Individual dosage of antibiotics required
Resistant bacteria spread

Picture: Nico Lubaczowski