The surge in drug-resistant infections is a global health threat, and one of the biggest causes is farmers who give their animals antibiotics to keep them healthy before slaughter. "Overuse of the drugs has allowed germs to develop defenses to survive," Matt Richtel reports for The New York Times. "Drug-resistant infections in animals are spreading to people, jeopardizing the effectiveness of drugs that have provided quick cures for a vast range of ailments and helped lengthen human lives over much of the past century."
However, powerful farm interests have stymied some public-health officials' investigations into the issue. That's what happened after nearly 200 people got sick with pork salmonella in 2015. The antibiotic-resistant pork variant is the fastest-growing salmonella strain in the U.S., but "an exhaustive detective hunt by public-health authorities . . . was crippled by weak, loophole-ridden laws and regulations — and ultimately blocked by farm owners who would not let investigators onto their property and by their politically powerful allies in the pork industry," Richtel reports.
The pork industry routinely refused to give investigators information on antibiotic use, according to Parthapratim Basu, a former chief veterinarian of the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service. "When it comes to power, no one dares to stand up to the pork industry," Basu told Richtel, "not even the U.S. government."
The Times story reconstructs the pork-salmonella outbreak and its aftermath with interviews of victims, investigators, industry executives and others involved, and information from government documents, medical records and emails of scientists and public-health officials, Richtel reports.
At its heart, resistance from the pork industry and hog farmers stems from their worries about being unfairly blamed for the salmonella outbreak. In reality, they argued, salmonella is endemic in livestock, and the science is too complicated to blame hog farmers, Richtel reports: "The tension mirrors a broader distrust in agriculture and other business about the intention of federal regulators and other government overseers."
However, powerful farm interests have stymied some public-health officials' investigations into the issue. That's what happened after nearly 200 people got sick with pork salmonella in 2015. The antibiotic-resistant pork variant is the fastest-growing salmonella strain in the U.S., but "an exhaustive detective hunt by public-health authorities . . . was crippled by weak, loophole-ridden laws and regulations — and ultimately blocked by farm owners who would not let investigators onto their property and by their politically powerful allies in the pork industry," Richtel reports.
The pork industry routinely refused to give investigators information on antibiotic use, according to Parthapratim Basu, a former chief veterinarian of the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service. "When it comes to power, no one dares to stand up to the pork industry," Basu told Richtel, "not even the U.S. government."
The Times story reconstructs the pork-salmonella outbreak and its aftermath with interviews of victims, investigators, industry executives and others involved, and information from government documents, medical records and emails of scientists and public-health officials, Richtel reports.
At its heart, resistance from the pork industry and hog farmers stems from their worries about being unfairly blamed for the salmonella outbreak. In reality, they argued, salmonella is endemic in livestock, and the science is too complicated to blame hog farmers, Richtel reports: "The tension mirrors a broader distrust in agriculture and other business about the intention of federal regulators and other government overseers."
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