article: McDonald's Stops
Using Antibiotics in Their Meats
Source: The Washington Post
June 19, 2003
McDonald’s is directing its meat suppliers to stop using growth-promoting
antibiotics due to concerns that their widespread use could reduce the
effectiveness of the drugs in people.
McDonald’s uses more than 2.5 billion pounds of chicken, beef and pork each year. It is the largest purchaser of beef in the United States and one of the largest purchaser’s of chicken and pork.
Some meat producers use the drugs in animal feed to make animals grow faster. The new policy calls for the elimination or scaling back of antibiotic drug use, which will noticeably reduce the amount of antibiotics being used since McDonald’s purchases such a large portion of the meats.
In 2001, close to
22 million pounds of antibiotics were used on farms. While a company representing
manufacturers of drugs for animal use estimates that 13 percent to 17
percent of this amount was used for growth promotion, an advocacy groups
places the estimate at over 50 percent.
McDonald’s new policy, which will be effective by the end of 2004,
calls for its direct suppliers, which mainly provide chicken, to stop
using 24 growth promoters that are similar to antibiotics used in humans.
The company uses independent farmers to supply its beef, chicken and pork,
and will consider it a “favorable factor” if the supplier does
not use growth promoters.
The regular use of antibiotics in animal feed to promote animal growth
leads bacteria to evolve into forms that are resistant to the antibiotics.
The resistant bacteria can then be transferred to people and antibiotics
will not be useful in treating them. Antibiotics such as penicillin and
tetracycline have already become much less effective than they once were,
and doctors and health officials have voiced concerns that newer antibiotics
might face a similar fate.
McDonald’s policy allows antibiotics to treat sick animals and to
prevent disease outbreaks on farms. Some activists say this could allow
farmers to continue using growth promoters by claiming they were for disease
control.
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