Just another nerd.
These Roman circus cups were created sometime in the 2nd or 3rd century AD and then imported into Denmark, presumably by wealthy families. They are on display in The National Museum of Denmark, and were found as burial goods in graves founds on the Stevns peninsula.
In August the World Health Organization went on record as favoring a worldwide ban on the use of growth-promoting antibiotics in animal feed. Routine use of animal antibiotics to promote growth is controversial due to fears that it might increase the rate at which human diseases become antibiotic resistant.
WHO cites the example of Denmark which banned the use of growth-promoting antibiotics in animal feed. According to WHO, the result was an increased cost to farmers of one percent, but was more than justified by the large decline in antibiotic resistant bacteria found in pigs and chickens — in some cases the level of antibiotic resistant bacteria fell from 80 percent before to 5 percent after the ban.
But, the WHO concedes it is still missing the crucial piece of the puzzle — does reducing antibiotics in animals reduce antibiotic-resistant diseases in human beings. There, the WHO concedes that there is no evidence that the ban on animal antibiotics in feed has had any positive effect on human health,
Data from healthy humans however are relatively sparse on which to assess the effect of the termination of antimicrobial growth promoters on the carriage of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. There is some indication that termination of antimicrobial growth promoters in Denmark may be associated with a decline in the prevalence of streptogramin resistance among E. faecium from humans. There is also an indication that the termination may be associated with an increase in resistance among E. faecalis to erythromycin (a macrolide), which may reflect an increase in the therapeutic use in pigs of tylosin (another macrolide). However, it should be noted that erythromycin is not a very important antimicrobial for the treatment of enterococcal infections in humans; preferred drugs include ampicillin, amoxycillin, vancomycin, streptogramins (for E. faecium), and linezolid. Further larger studies are needed to determine how much of an effect the discontinued use of antimicrobial growth promoters in Denmark will have on the carriage of antimicrobial resistance in the intestinal tract of humans in the community.
. . .
Overall, termination of antimicrobial growth promoters appears not to have affected the incidence of antimicrobial residues in foods or the incidence of human Salmonella, Campylobacter, or Yersinia infections in humans. These are the major zoonoses in Denmark that may be associated with consumption of pork and poultry. In an industry aggressively pursuing successful Salmonella reduction strategies, antimicrobial growth promoter termination appears not to have affected the prevalence of Salmonella in pig herds, pork, broiler flocks and poultry meat, or the prevalence of Campylobacter in poultry meat.
WHO and others are likely going to have to come up with a bit more positive results than that before seeing other nations emulate Denmark’s experiment.
Sources:
WHO Urges End to Use of Antibiotics for Animal Growth. Marc Kauffman, Washington Post, August 12, 2003.
WHO warns farmers on antibiotics. Associated Press, August 13, 2003.
Cut down on drugs for animals: UN agency. CBC News, August 13, 2003.
WHO international review panel’s evaluation of the termination of the use of antimicrobial growth promoters in Denmark. World Health Organization, August 2003.
In May, the director of Denmark’s Trapholt Art Museum in Kolding was acquitted of animal cruelty charges that stemmed from a bizarre installation at the museum.
Chilean-born Danish artist Marco Evaristti set up ten blenders that contained goldfish and gave visitors the “ethical choice” to turn the machines on or not (as depicted in the photo from Reuters).
Inevitably, somebody chose to turn on one of the blenders, police confiscated the exhibit and fined museum director Peter Meyer US$315 for animal cruelty.
But after a two-day trial in May, Judge Preben Bagger acquitted Meyer of the animal cruelty charge. Bagger ruled that since the goldfish were killed instantly by the blender, that their deaths were humane and not cruel.
Correction: When this story was reported in the media, the fish involved was repeatedly described as a goldfish. But the fish depicted in the Reuters picture above is clearly not a goldfish. Presumably either the artist or the media in Denmark did not look closely at the species of fish used in the installation.
Source:
Dane acquitted in goldfish blender case. The Associated Press, May 19, 2003.
Liquidising goldfish ‘not a crime’. The BBC, May 19, 2003.
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary MEdicinces Authority is proposing to ban the use of the antibiotic virginiamycin for purposes of promoting growth in chickens, pigs and cattle.
Virginiamycin is added as a supplement to feed where it increases the growth of animals as well as reduces mortality. Under the proposed change in Australia, the antibiotic could be used only to treat animal disease. The Veterinary Medicines Authority’s Tim Dyke said in a prepared statement,
Since a related antibiotic is now being used in human medicine we wish to avoid any livelihood of antibiotic resistance developing and affecting people . . . Canceling its use as a growth promotant in animals is the way to do this.
Whether or not the risk is real is debatable. An article currently in press for the Journal of Risk Analysis puts the potential benefit assuming the worst case scenario at less than 1 additional life saved in both the United States and Australia over the next 5 years from a total ban.
Interestingly, virginiamycin and similar drugs have already been banned in the European Union and there is some evidence that it led to a decrease in animal welfare and an increase in the use of other antibiotics. A study by the International Federation for Animal Health — which represents companies that manufacture vaccines, antibiotics and other animal health products found that,
The diminution [of the antibiotics banned by the EU] has, however, been at the cost of a deterioration in animal welfare. There have been reports of increased morbidity and mortality, for example among young pigs, mostly associated with enteric infections, in Denmark, and in poultry, again associated with enteritis, in France. This has driven, at least in part, a substantial increase in the use of therapeutic antibiotics in Europe – in Denmark from an overall 48 tonnes in 1986 to 94 tonnes in 2001. The main antibiotics involved in this increase have been tetracycline, mostly used in pigs, whose usage increased from 12.9 to 27.9 tonnes (a 106% increase), macrolides and lincosamides (7.6 to 14.3 tonnes, 88%), and aminoglycosides (7.1 to 11.9 tonnes, 68%). This has occurred despite attempts to improve other critical aspects of animal husbandry to make up for the loss of the growth promoters. Experience in Sweden suggest that this may eventually be partially effective but with an increased financial burden, but it is far from clear that this will apply to the whole of Europe where conditions are different from those of Scandinavia.
Pfizer, which manufactures virginiamycin unsuccessfully sued to have the European Union ban overturned. The EU ban was denounced as “contrary to scientific evidence” by a member of its own Scientific Committee for Animal Nutrition which in 1998 examined a Denmark study on the risks of virginiamycin and found it wanting.
Sources:
Outcome of discussions #14. Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition, July 10, 1998.
NOAH regrets antibiotic ban. National Office of Animal Health, 1998.
The European ban on growth-promoting antibiotics and its consequences for animal and human health. International Federation for Animal Health, November 2002
Ban planned for animal antibiotic. AAP, April 6, 2003.
On September 28, Denmark authorities arrested four men and one woman and charged them with at least 80 counts of ALF-related terrorism.
The five men and women were apparently under police surveillance and were followed to an area near a large farm. After arriving there the five donned gear apparently aimed to allow them to sneak onto the farm and raid it, including radio headsets, shoe coverings, and small lights mounted on their heads.
At that point police stepped in and took the small group into custody. ALF supporters seem particularly upset that, in a delicious irony, the activists were charged with animal cruelty among other things.
Source:
Five arrested in Denmark. Frontline Information Service press release, October 3, 2000.