The British Poultry Council has responded to a study commissioned by Save our Antibiotics which claims there are ‘extremely high levels of e.coli resistant to essential antibiotics for treating serious human e. coli infections on British supermarket chicken and pork’.
The research found ‘soaring levels’ of resistance in chicken meat, with 24% of samples testing positive for ESBL e.coli. This is said to be four times higher than was found during a similar study in 2015.
The study, which was carried out by Cambridge University, found that 51% of the e.coli from pork and poultry samples were resistant to the antibiotic trimethoprim, which is used to treat lower urinary-tract infections. In addition, 19% of the e.coli were resistant to gentamicin, used to treat more serious upper urinary-tract infections.
In response to these claims, Richard Griffiths, policy director at the British Poultry Council (BPC), has clarified the work going on in the industry to reduce its use of antibiotics.
He said: “The British poultry sector has reduced its use of antibiotics by 44% since 2012. The industry has recognised a problem, taken action, and made its commitment clear in our report: Leading the Way in the Responsible Use of Antibiotics.
“We've never claimed to have all the answers, and the impacts of our precautionary approach are in the process of being fully realised and analysed. Our priority remains the health of our birds and the responsible therapeutic use of antibiotics, but we also need to explore further into the science of the issue.”
Griffiths explained that resistance is complex and the BPC has seen evidence of it persisting even after stopping the use of antibiotics.
“Like any life, bacteria are subject to natural selection so we need to continue challenging the resistant bacteria in an environment hostile to its continuation,” he added.
“How best to do this is just one of the incredibly difficult questions we and the scientific community are trying to answer.”
Griffiths also stressed the importance of good kitchen hygiene practices in the handling and cooking of meat as it will kill the bacteria.
“There is no sound-bite answer when it comes to antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is an incredibly important subject for both animal and human health. The British poultry sector is determined to proceed along the route of responsible and reducing use. Using fewer antibiotics will put less pressure on bacteria in the poultry production chain to select for resistance, and we will see that resistance drop,” commented Griffiths.
“Under the auspices of the BPC Antibiotic Stewardship Scheme the sector is committed to driving best practice across the industry. A 44% reduction in use of antibiotics is amazing during a period when UK production of poultry meat rose by 5%, and is due in large part to our highly skilled practitioners playing their part in a global issue.”
The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) also responded to the study, telling Meat Management: ‘The BMPA take this issue very seriously and have recently become active members of Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA)."
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
