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Ending Antibiotic Use in Pork Would Be Costly to Consumers and Animal Welfare, Lindsey Says

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 16:26:34 CDT

Ending Antibiotic Use in Pork Would Be Costly to Consumers and Animal Welfare, Lindsey Says
High-profile animal rights groups have mounted campaigns against livestock producers for years. Beef, poultry or pork, none have been excluded.

Recently, the Humane Society of the United States has placed pork producers on the hot seat with their efforts to force hog farms to abandon the use of individual housing for sows. At the same time, there are other groups attacking pork producers over the use of antibiotics. Their main theme seems to be that using antibiotics in production agriculture is somehow ruining antibiotics for use by humans.

Roy Lee Lindsey, executive director of the Oklahoma Pork Council, says nothing could be further from the truth. He spoke with Ron Hays recently and says the campaigns of the vocal minorities against pork producers are not reflective of sound science.

"We live in a sound-bite world and it's easy to talk in sound bites, especially when you're the person attacking something else as opposed to the person who's trying to defend what you do especially using science. Because, unfortunately, you can't fit the science into a sound bite most times.

"We know from all the research that's been done and all the research that we've studied that there's no scientific support for the notion that use of antibiotics with our livestock is creating antibiotic resistance in humans. My personal belief is that taking our kids to the doctor for an antibiotic every time they have a runny nose is far more likely to be increasing antibiotic resistance in humans than anything in our food."

He says there are strict protocols use to prevent antibiotics used on the farm from being carried to the consumer.

"All the antibiotics we use on the farm are used in accordance with FDA procedures, FDA guidelines and they all have a withdrawal time that say you can't send this animal to market for so many days after using this product."

He says while there is the possibility an unscrupulous producer could put tainted meat on the market, it is almost impossible for antibiotic-tainted pork to make it into the meat case. He said the pork is tested to ensure it is antibiotic-free.
"The fact remains that we have withdrawal times. We have to keep records of what we use. And we test for residues to make sure there's nothing going out to the public that has antibiotic residue in it. So there are protocols in place throughout the industry, throughout the processing industry to make sure that's the case."

For some animal-rights activists, that's not enough. They say the livestock industry should not be allowed to use antibiotics at all. Lindsey says that outlawing antibiotics for use in animal production would not only be costly to the consumer, but it would also be costly to the cause the animal-rights activist profess to be devoted to.

Losing antibiotics would be "tremendously costly in the terms of the economics of losing it. It would also be costly in terms of the animals because no longer would we be able to provide for some of those animals that do need treatment. There are animals that do get sick in some form or fashion and do need to be treated and treated by a veterinarian. We may lose the opportunity to do some of that and that's not good for the animals. Not being able to treat a sick animal is not good for animal welfare."


   
   

Ron Hays talks with Roy Lindsey about antibiotic use in pork production.
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