What did the chicken on your plate eat? Beware, it could be fatal

Beneath the growing demand for the lean white meat are deadly health risks associated with the abuse of antibiotics, mainly on medium-and large-scale chicken rearing farms, according to recent studies. Chicken nuggets at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Rennes, France. FILE PHOTO | TEA GRAPHIC | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By JEFF OTIENO, The EastAfrican

In Summary

• Scientists say farmers are arbitrarily giving the birds antibiotics to stimulate growth in order to get them to reach “the slaughter weight within 35 days of hatching,” and prevent illness in confined flocks.
• Studies done in various countries found that poultry farmers prefer human antibiotics because they can easily buy them over the counter, and that they are normally cheaper than veterinary formulations.
• On the flip side, the farmers risk creating drug-resistant “super bugs,” putting the lives of chicken consumers at risk. Superbugs are bacteria that are resistant to different types of antibiotics.
• Many scientists believe that the results from the study are just the tip of the iceberg, and that the problem is bigger and not confined to Nairobi, but affects other parts of East Africa also.

The demand for chicken has been growing in East Africa, especially among the health-conscious middle class who prefer lean white meat to the cholesterol-rich red meat.

But beneath the growing demand for the delicacy are deadly health risks associated with the abuse of antibiotics, mainly on medium-and large-scale chicken rearing farms, according to recent studies.

Scientists say farmers are arbitrarily giving the birds antibiotics to stimulate growth in order to get them to reach “the slaughter weight within 35 days of hatching,” and prevent illness in confined flocks.

Researcher Patrick Vudriko, who is currently based in Japan, said studies done in various countries found that poultry farmers prefer human antibiotics because they can easily buy them over the counter, and that they are normally cheaper than veterinary formulations.

“Obviously farmers have no idea about physiology thus they would not know how to use the drugs,” said Dr Vudriko, adding that some farmers were using antiretroviral drugs to fatten broilers quickly.

But on the flip side, the farmers risk creating drug-resistant “super bugs,” putting the lives of chicken consumers at risk. Superbugs are bacteria that are resistant to different types of antibiotics.

“The misuse of antibiotics is pushing us to a point where common infections could become a death trap because patients will no longer respond to the drugs we have,” said Nairobi-based veterinary doctor Gregory Githinji. “This is how resistant E coli and salmonella bacteria are finding their way into human bodies.”

Last year, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) released a study on the safety of raw chicken sold in Nairobi. The study, published in the BMC Research Notes journal, exposed the risks consumers face every day by eating such meat.

The study found that retail chicken in Nairobi was not only highly contaminated, but that it also contained potentially pathogenic multidrug-resistant strains of E coli.

Ideally, the bacterium commonly found in the intestines of humans and other animals causes no harm, but the point of concern is the dangerous strains that have developed in recent times — capable of causing severe food poisoning and even death if not well treated.

“Seventy-five per cent of the isolates were resistant to at least one of the 12 antibiotics tested, with resistance to tetracycline being the highest at 60.3 per cent. In addition, 40.4 per cent E coli isolates were positive for the 10 virulence genes tested,” the scientists concluded in the Kemri study.

Salmonella, another group of bacteria that are a common cause of food poisoning, are also becoming resistant to antibiotics. Salmonella is found in contaminated animal products like meat, eggs and milk. Like E coli, it can cause diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach cramps and severe fever.

Many scientists believe that the results from the study are just the tip of the iceberg, and that the problem is bigger and not confined to Nairobi, but affects other parts of East Africa also.

A study conducted in 2010 on faecal samples from broiler chickens in northern and central Uganda for example, discovered a high percentage of E coli isolates from samples collected in Lira and Kampala districts. In Lira, 90.8 per cent of the samples tested were infected with E coli, while 73 per cent tested positive in Kampala. The study was published in Medwell Journals.

“A total of 182 E coli were tested for their sensitivity to six antimicrobials — tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, cotrimoxazole and gentamicin. Overall, 168 isolates showed resistance to at least one antimicrobial,” the study concluded.