Gonzo
The Living Force
A story regarding the UK National Farmers Union (NFU) angrily responding to a statement from the organic accreditation body, the Soil Association, that current research demonstrates new levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in intensively farmed animals that threaten human health.
The story can be found linked from The Farmers Guardian website front page (_http://www.farmersguardian.com/)
Which points to:
_http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/livestock/livestock-news/nfu-attacks-%E2%80%98pathetic&rsquo-soil-association-antibiotic-claims/34514.article
However, when I try to access the article, I get a 404 error. I received the story through a media monitoring service as follows (I cannot verify the following has not been edited or otherwise modified)
A SENIOR NFU official has attacked the Soil Association over what he describes as pathetic attempts' by it to raise fears over levels of antimicrobial resistance in farm animals.
The NFU Head of Food and Farming Kevin Pearce accused the organic accreditation body of launching a cynical attack designed to wreck consumer confidence in the wider food market'.
His comments came after the Soil Association claimed scientists speaking at a conference on antimicrobial resistance today in London would reveal shocking new levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in intensively reared farm animals that have the potential to spread to humans'.
It cited Professor Gary French, from Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital and King's College, London, who was expected to tell delegates: We are faced with the potential loss of antimicrobial therapy. Effective national and international programmes of control to combat these problems are urgently needed.
The Soil Association said Government scientists would admit that a new, almost untreatable, type of antibiotic resistance in E. coli has spread from the handful of farms on which it had been identified, to more than one in three of all dairy farms in England and Wales'.
One study will link the rise of the problem, known as extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL), to the increasing farm use of modern antibiotics classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as critically important in human medicine. The same study will present evidence that the unregulated sale of animals from the first infected farms has increased the problem, the association said.
It added that the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) Professor John Thelfall would present evidence on a highly drug-resistant strain of salmonella associated with pigs and pigmeat, which has caused human outbreaks in ten European countries'.
He will ask: Is this the next multi-drug resistant epidemic European Salmonella?' Alarmingly, this same strain has now also been found in British pigs with additional ESBL resistance.
Richard Young from the Soil Association said there had been little public scrutiny of farm antibiotic use for over a decade' and that it was high time that the government took this problem seriously'.
Mr Pearce responded angrily to the Soil Association's claims, which have been widely reported in the national media.
Like people, animals get ill and need medicines, he said. This is true regardless of the type or management system on a farm and there is no evidence that more intensive farming systems use more veterinary medicines, or particularly use more antibiotics. Furthermore, there are strict withdrawal periods before products enter the food chain.
He said the NFU was fully supportive of the technical and scientific investigations and research into this issue.
The conference, organised by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy in association with the Veterinary Laboratories Agency at Warwick University, was the ideal forum for scientists, vets and industry representatives to come together to discuss the issue, he said.
He added: The pathetic attempts by the Soil Association to hijack this conference in the press to pursue their own agenda, demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about the use of antibiotics on farm.
This is a cynical attack designed to wreck consumer confidence in the wider food market.
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Gonzo
The story can be found linked from The Farmers Guardian website front page (_http://www.farmersguardian.com/)
Which points to:
_http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/livestock/livestock-news/nfu-attacks-%E2%80%98pathetic&rsquo-soil-association-antibiotic-claims/34514.article
However, when I try to access the article, I get a 404 error. I received the story through a media monitoring service as follows (I cannot verify the following has not been edited or otherwise modified)
A SENIOR NFU official has attacked the Soil Association over what he describes as pathetic attempts' by it to raise fears over levels of antimicrobial resistance in farm animals.
The NFU Head of Food and Farming Kevin Pearce accused the organic accreditation body of launching a cynical attack designed to wreck consumer confidence in the wider food market'.
His comments came after the Soil Association claimed scientists speaking at a conference on antimicrobial resistance today in London would reveal shocking new levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in intensively reared farm animals that have the potential to spread to humans'.
It cited Professor Gary French, from Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital and King's College, London, who was expected to tell delegates: We are faced with the potential loss of antimicrobial therapy. Effective national and international programmes of control to combat these problems are urgently needed.
The Soil Association said Government scientists would admit that a new, almost untreatable, type of antibiotic resistance in E. coli has spread from the handful of farms on which it had been identified, to more than one in three of all dairy farms in England and Wales'.
One study will link the rise of the problem, known as extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL), to the increasing farm use of modern antibiotics classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as critically important in human medicine. The same study will present evidence that the unregulated sale of animals from the first infected farms has increased the problem, the association said.
It added that the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) Professor John Thelfall would present evidence on a highly drug-resistant strain of salmonella associated with pigs and pigmeat, which has caused human outbreaks in ten European countries'.
He will ask: Is this the next multi-drug resistant epidemic European Salmonella?' Alarmingly, this same strain has now also been found in British pigs with additional ESBL resistance.
Richard Young from the Soil Association said there had been little public scrutiny of farm antibiotic use for over a decade' and that it was high time that the government took this problem seriously'.
Mr Pearce responded angrily to the Soil Association's claims, which have been widely reported in the national media.
Like people, animals get ill and need medicines, he said. This is true regardless of the type or management system on a farm and there is no evidence that more intensive farming systems use more veterinary medicines, or particularly use more antibiotics. Furthermore, there are strict withdrawal periods before products enter the food chain.
He said the NFU was fully supportive of the technical and scientific investigations and research into this issue.
The conference, organised by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy in association with the Veterinary Laboratories Agency at Warwick University, was the ideal forum for scientists, vets and industry representatives to come together to discuss the issue, he said.
He added: The pathetic attempts by the Soil Association to hijack this conference in the press to pursue their own agenda, demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about the use of antibiotics on farm.
This is a cynical attack designed to wreck consumer confidence in the wider food market.
------
Gonzo
