Srinagar: Is a chicken we eat worth eating? If your response is in affirmative, think again. More than half of poultry farms in Kashmir Valley administer antibiotics to chickens to promote growth and keep disease away, almost as a replacement for nutrition and sanitation. The use of antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin and nalidixic-acid, mixed in feed by the owners of the poultry farms, has been linked to superbug strains of the food-poisoning bacteria.
Doctor Nazia, a veterinarian, says that antibiotics consumed by birds give rise to subnormal concentration in them. “The drug strains increase growth of hormones in the birds and they appear bigger and weigh more as compared to those of similar aged birds who are not fed by such kind of drugs,” Nazia said.
The veterinarian said that the antibiotics consumed by the birds transfer into human beings. “Once consumed by humans it hampers the growth of normal micro flora of stomach and intestines of human beings and ultimately leads to disturbance in GIT (gastrointestinal tract) causing diarrhea, mal-absorption of vitamins,” Nazia said.
The veterinarian said the antibiotics to the poultry birds should be given only if they are ill.
“There is a proper way one needs to give antibiotics to them. One should first conduct the test of the birds, and if doctor prescribes then only antibiotics should be given preference and not as promoters.”
The veterinarian adds: “What we see here is absolutely its reverse. Owners of more than half of the poultry farms feed antibiotics to live stocks just to enhance their business.”
Dr Nissar Mir, a senior physician told The INS that main origin of resistance to antibiotics was their misuse which can be acquired by unnecessary prescription of antibodies for viral infections, inadequate use of antibiotics by patients or consumption of poultry birds fed on antibiotics as growth promoters. “In human body some bacteria are naturally resistant to certain antibiotics while others acquire resistance through mutations in some of their genes when they are exposed to an antibiotic,” he said, adding, “This resistance, natural or acquired, can spread to other bacterial species since bacteria can easily exchange genetic material from one to another, even if they are from different species.”
He said that when chicken sourced from poultry raised on growth promoters is eaten by people, they also consume antibiotic resistant bacteria. “Those bacteria do not respond conventionally prescribed antibiotics so illness is hard to treat or even can be untreatable. Even heat cannot breakdown some of the antibiotic residues in meat with a cooking for while.”
Using antibiotics are growth promoters in not restrict to Kashmir alone. A number of reaches in recent past have shown the trend in outside valley including neighbouring Punjab.
A study led by researchers from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), published in Environmental Health Perspectives, also found high levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in chickens raised for both meat and eggs on farms in Punjab.
Earlier, a study led by Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, Washington DC and New Delhi, also revealed that antibiotics are being routinely administered to chickens on Indian poultry farms in to promote growth.
The study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives said that twelve of the 18 farms studied, or 67%, reported the use of antimicrobials as growth boosters.
