Maybe it is time to look at what our chickens are eating to make them taste so good.
Government food technicians involved with the poultry industry are concerned about the administration of nitrofurans to combat disease in chickens imported to South Africa from Brazil. European Union health authorities fear long-term exposure to residues of these antibiotics in the meat may lead to an increased risk of cancer in consumers.
But locally raised chickens may pose even greater risks.
Antibiotics are widely used in animal feed to promote growth and to cure infection in South African livestock. Several belong to the same families of antibiotics used in human therapy. Zinc bacitracin, tylosin, olaquindox, oxytetracycline and virginiamycin fall into this category and any farmer can buy them without a veterinary prescription.
The EU has banned most antibiotics used as growth enhancers because they could compromise human health, but no laws prohibit their use in South Africa.
Hostile bugs picked up from your average chicken burger or Sunday roast have survived the antibiotics administered to the animal and are likely to have built up resistance to these drugs. This often makes it difficult to treat anyone suffering from an illness caused by these bacteria, especially if the antibiotics used on the patient belong to the same class of drugs administered to the bird. The consequences can be fatal.
Multidrug-resistant Salmonella found in poultry claims as many as 600 lives a year in the United States alone. Campylobacter is another aggressive bacterium in poultry and is a common cause of diarrhoea and gastroenteritis in children. Quinolones are often used to combat this bacterium, but it is becoming increasingly resistant to this drug. Quinolones were introduced into animal health care seven years ago.
Experts say that South Africa must pull its head out of the sand. Natural alternatives to antibiotics are already successfully used in Europe.
Natural alternatives to antibiotics have been brought to market in South Africa and farmers are becoming increasingly aware of the new options.
Philip Potgieter, director of Optivite SA, manufacturers of organic growth promoters, says that natural feed additives cost the farmer no more than antimicrobial growth enhancers. “These are natural bug busters that satisfy all needs and all export and import controls,” he says.
Poultry producers concede that more resistant bacteria are being found in chickens because farmers have overused antibiotics. Bacteria are developing resistance to antibiotics around the world and ever more conditions that could once be treated with antibiotics now defy even the most advanced medicines.
The paradox is that though antibiotics can save lives, their abuse can be lethal.