Reluctant game-changers

Fast-food industry has been playing a critical role in the fight against drug resistance in developed countries. Why is it dragging its feet over ending antibiotic misuse in chicken in India?

- RAJESHWARI SINHA, AMIT KHURANA

LIFE WILL hardly remain the same when we get to the other side of the covid-19 pandemic. Among the few things that are likely to remain unchanged is the popularity of fast food and the fear of a looming antibiotic apocalypse. The two are, in fact, linked.

Chicken, considered a staple on fast-food menus, are routinely administered antibiotics throughout their short lifecycle of 35-42 days, even in the absence of any clinical sign of infection. Poultry keepers say it prevents diseases while helping the birds easily gain weight with less feed. In 2014, a laboratory test conducted by Delhi non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found residues of multiple antibiotics in chicken samples (see ‘Hatching superbugs’, 1-15 August, 2014). In its subsequent surveys, CSE researchers found that even poultry feed manufacturers, whether selling in the open market or online, add antibiotics liberally to the feed (see ‘Perpetually on antibiotics’, 1-15 April, 2020). Several of these, such as erythromycin, tylosin, ciprofloxacin, and enrofloxacin, belong to antibiotic classes that are critically important for humans. They are the sole or one of the limited therapies available to treat infections caused by bacteria from non-human sources. Ciprofloxacin that belongs to antibiotic class fluoroquinolone and erythromycin that belongs to class macrolide is used in treating common respiratory and urinary tract infections. who categorizes these classes as “highest priority critically important antimicrobials” (HPCIAS).