KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Two kids seriously injured in the Joplin, Mo., tornado in May 2011 showed up at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City suffering from antibiotic-resistant infections from dirt and debris blown into their wounds.
Blame the overuse of antibiotics in livestock, according to the doctors familiar with their cases.
"These kids had some really highly resistant bacteria that they clearly had not picked up in a hospital," said Jason Newland, director of the Children Mercy's antibiotic stewardship program.
Newland and other doctors believe those infections are part of the price we are paying for a half-century of overusing antibiotics in cattle and other meat animals in the United States.
As in humans, bacteria growing inside animals that are given antibiotics can develop a resistance to the medicines, Newland explained. That resistant bacteria can then be transferred to the soil through animal waste.
During severe storms, such as the EF5 tornado which killed 161 people in Joplin, that contaminated soil can end up in open wounds, and even modern medicine is challenged in combating the serious infections that can occur.
A yearlong investigation by The Kansas City Star found a multimillion-dollar-a-year pharmaceutical arms race in the beef industry is not just about curing sick cows.
Many U.S. veterinarians who specialize in treating cattle said in a recent survey that they were concerned about the overuse and improper use of antibiotics and other drugs.
Based on sales data alone, the amount of drugs used in livestock is increasing, and beef samples are showing greater numbers of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
In its investigation, The Star examined the largest beef packers including the big four - Tyson Foods of Arkansas, Cargill Meat Solutions of Wichita, Kan., National Beef of Kansas City, Mo., and JBS of Brazil - as well as the intertwined network of feedlots, processing plants, animal drug companies and lobbyists who make up the behemoth known as Big Beef.
Today's ever-larger feedlots use an intensive antibiotic regimen, even though the USDA reports that such practices contribute to antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans.
Big Beef maintains that concerns about antibiotic overuse in livestock are overblown. The Animal Health Institute, the lobbying arm of the animal pharmaceutical industry, said there's not enough data to compare antibiotic use in animals and humans.
The industry said antibiotics are needed for the humane treatment of sick and suffering animals and added that there is no "provable connection" between the cases in Joplin and livestock antibiotic use.
Drug use saves money
Before cattle are slaughtered, they've been fed, tagged and injected with millions of dollars of hormones, growth promoters and antibiotics.
Every year, about 29 million pounds of antimicrobial drugs are used on cattle, pigs and poultry, government data show.
The government doesn't make public how much of those drugs are used in cattle, or other meat animals, because it considers that information a "trade secret" and its release might give one meat producer a competitive advantage. A public interest group, however, sued the FDA recently to force the release of additional data on antibiotics used in food animals.
The Government Accountability Project sued when FDA refused to release the data under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The Animal Health Institute said that data it collected until 2007 showed that about one-third of the compounds used in food animals are not used in humans and therefore "cannot in any way contribute to the burden of antibiotic resistance in humans."
Which means two-thirds of those used in food animals are used in humans.
Cattlemen have known for decades that antibiotics cause digestive changes in cattle that help them efficiently convert corn into added weight.
And that saves money.
Before the 1950s, most cattle primarily ate grass until they were slaughtered. But after World War II, farmers learned they could feed large numbers of cattle on less acreage by using more corn instead of grass.
However, animals in confined spaces spread diseases. Cattle on high rations of corn develop acid buildup, which can deteriorate the gut lining and cause gas, bloating and lameness. Corn can eat away part of a cow's stomach, said Allen Williams, a former feedlot owner and cattle specialist at Mississippi State University.
Big Beef soon discovered antibiotics controlled both problems. The drugs help control diseases among closely confined cattle and counteract the acid buildup from corn. They relieve bloating, allowing cattle to eat more. Cargill acknowledged that antibiotics are used in part to treat liver abscesses in cattle that result from high concentrations of corn they are fed.
Improved genetics along with antibiotics, hormones and growth promoters allow the beef industry to raise a calf to slaughter weight in a little more than a year, half the time it used to take.
Studies also show that animal drug residues in beef people eat, and in cattle waste runoff that occasionally enters water systems, can cause human illnesses.
Both sides in the debate remain entrenched and cite scientific studies to back up their views.
"There's no question that routinely administering non-therapeutic doses of antibiotics to food animals contributes to antibiotic resistance," said Donald Kennedy, former commissioner of the FDA and president emeritus at Stanford University.
Not true, said Mike Apley, a veterinarian and Kansas State University professor.
"We have zero data to say that growth-promoting uses of antibiotics in animals is a major contributor to the overall problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria," said Apley, who acknowledged that some of his studies are funded by pharmaceutical companies.
Antibiotic resistance
Today, there is overwhelming evidence that non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in food animals contributes to antibiotic resistance, according to Stuart Levy, a world-renowned expert who co-authored a study last year at Tufts University.
The World Health Organization also is worried, warning that the speed at which antibiotics are becoming ineffective outpaces the development of replacement drugs.
"One of the most powerful measures globally to prevent antimicrobial resistance has been the ban of the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock in the 27 European Union countries since 2006," the WHO said last year.
Next Sunday: Big Beef fights back using money, science.
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