Antibiotics in your chicken!

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) lab study found residues of antibiotics in 40 per cent of the samples of chicken that were tested.

Large-scale unregulated use of antibiotics in the poultry industry could be contributing to Indians developing resistance to antibiotics and falling prey to a host of otherwise curable ailments, according to the results of a new study released on Wednesday by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

 

In the biggest study done in India to test residues of antibiotics in chicken the CSE lab study found residues of antibiotics in 40 per cent of the samples of chicken that were tested.

Releasing the findings of the study which has been conducted by CSE’s Pollution Monitoring Laboratory (PML), Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre said: ``Antibiotics are no more restricted to humans nor limited to treating diseases. The poultry industry, for instance, uses antibiotics as a growth promoter. Chickens are fed antibiotics so that they gain weight and grow faster.”

 

The test results

PML tested 70 samples of chicken in Delhi and NCR: 36 samples were picked from Delhi, 12 from Noida, eight from Gurgaon and seven each from Faridabad and Ghaziabad. Three tissues — muscle, liver and kidney — were tested for the presence of six antibiotics widely used in poultry: oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline and doxycycline (class tetracyclines); enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin (class fluoroquinolones) and neomycin, an aminoglycoside.

Residues of five of the six antibiotics were found in all the three tissues of the chicken samples. They were in the range of 3.37-131.75 μg/kg. Of the 40 per cent samples found tainted with antibiotic residues, 22.9 per cent contained residues of only one antibiotic while the remaining 17.1 per cent samples had residues of more than one antibiotic.

 

In one sample purchased from Gurgaon, a cocktail of three antibiotics — oxytetracycline, doxycycline and enrofloxacin — was found. This indicates rampant use of multiple antibiotics in the poultry industry.

 

CSE researchers point out that antibiotics are frequently pumped into chicken during its life cycle of 35-42 days: they are occasionally given as a drug to treat infections, regularly mixed with feed to promote growth and routinely administered to all birds for several days to prevent infections, even when there are no signs of it.

 

``Our study is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more antibiotics that are rampantly used that the lab has not tested,” added Mr. Bhushan.

 

Large-scale misuse and overuse of antibiotics in chicken is leading to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the chicken itself. These bacteria are then transmitted to humans through food or environment. Additionally, eating small doses of antibiotics through chicken can also lead to development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans.

 

To ascertain the linkage between overuse of antibiotics in poultry farms and antibiotic resistance in humans, CSE researchers reviewed 13 studies conducted by various government and private hospitals across the country between 2002 and 2013. They found that resistance was very high against ciprofloxacin, doxycycline and tetracyclines. These are the same antibiotics that were detected in the chicken samples.

 

The problem is compounded by the fact that many essential and important antibiotics for humans are being used by the poultry industry.

 

In India, there is growing evidence that resistance to fluoroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin is rapidly increasing. Treating fatal diseases like sepsis, pneumonia and tuberculosis (TB) with fluoroquinolones is becoming tough because microbes that cause these diseases are increasingly becoming resistant to fluoroquinolones.

 

The CSE study found two fluoroquinolone antibiotics — enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin — in 28.6 per cent of the chicken samples tested.

 

Worldwide governments are adopting regulations to control the use of antibiotics. But only those countries have shown signs of improvement that have taken stringent actions. EU, for instance, has banned the use of antibiotics as growth promoters. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that antibiotics that are critical for human use should not be used in animals.

CSE researchers point out that the poultry industry in India is growing at 10 per cent per annum. Poultry constitutes more than 50 per cent of all the meat consumed in India.

 

Noted Mr. Bhushan: ``India will have to adopt a comprehensive approach to tackle this problem. The biggest problem is the emergence of resistant bacteria in animals and its transmission through food and environment. Till the time we keep misusing antibiotics in animals, we will not be able to solve the problem of antibiotic resistance. For India, therefore, the priority should be to put systems in place to reduce the use of antibiotics in poultry and other food animals.

App to order Palakkadan Matta in Kerala

A traditional farm launches a mobile app that lets customers place orders for the rice.

 

A mobile app that lets one order Palakkadan Matta rice has been launched.

 

Tapping into the popularity of the rice variety, which has a distinct taste, among Malayalis, a traditional farm cultivating the Palakkadan Matta has launched the mobile application, making the rice accessible to gourmets anywhere in the country.

 

Daksh Farm in Palakkad, which started receiving orders for the Palakkadan Matta rice a few weeks ago through its website, has now gone for the mobile application to make the rice more popular and accessible.

 

People across the country can now download the farm app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phonegap.bjp) and order the quantity of the rice they require.

 

It was only six years ago that the Palakkadan Matta got the Geographical Indication (GI) tag for being a rice variety with a distinct taste. Under the registry, there are 10 varieties of the Palakkadan Matta: Aryan, Aruvakkari, Chitteni, Chenkazhama, Chettadi, Thavalakanna, Eruppu, Poochamban, Vattan Jyothy, and Kunjukunj.

 

The Palakkadan Matta is described as a bold red rice with a unique taste because of the geographical area it is grown in and the peculiar weather there owing to the eastern wind. “The Daksh Farm was born out of our passion to protect the rich legacy of the Palakkadan Matta, which is stable and healthy. Owned and operated by our family with centuries of farming tradition, the farm was christened Daksh only recently. We are selling the whole grain brown rice through our website and app,” says Prabhal Mohandas, an Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode graduate and co-grower of the farm.

 

“The rice is produced 100 per cent organically. We treat the soil, air, and water as important resources, respecting the delicate balance of nature. We are also committed to being a catalyst for positive change in our kitchens and our environment,” he says. Apart from the whole grain Matta rice, the farm also distributes Matta rice powder, whole grain Matta rice flakes, and rice ‘frylets.’ Hay can also be ordered online.

 

“In whole grain Matta rice, the rice is not polished after removing the outer layer. All the nutrients remain in the unpolished rice, whereas you don’t find any of them in polished rice. By polishing, all the useful ingredients are lost, leaving only the carbohydrate,” he says. The farm has tied up with India Post to make the rice available across India.

Sin tax can help fund a dozen AIIMS

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan is pleased with the tobacco tax imposed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the recent Budget. Not just because young people may be forced to give up smoking as cigarettes have become prohibitively expensive, but also because the ‘sin tax’ could be used to fund hospitals.

 

Speaking toBusinessLine, Harsh Vardhan said that the money coming in from the tax could fund a dozen AIIMSs (All-India Institute of Medical Sciences), while pricing cigarettes beyond the reach of young people.

 

Jaitley had increased the excise duty on cigarettes by 11-72 per cent in the Budget. The Health Minister had been a leading voice in the run-up to this change, along with other experts, who had called for higher taxes on tobacco products.

 

The math

The increased tax on tobacco could bring in about Rs. 3,000 crore annually, says Vardhan. And that would mean Rs. 15,000 crore in the Government kitty after a full five-year term. Divide this by the cost of setting up one AIIMS, about Rs. 1,200 crore, and you could fund a dozen such institutes across the country, he says.

 

And as each institute saves the lives of millions of people, the tobacco tax becomes a tool, a two-pronged strategy, he adds.

 

Though happy with the hiked tax on cigarettes, a health expert points out thatbeediscontinue to escape the net. Taxing tobacco is the best way to kill consumption, but it needs to be done on all tobacco products to be effective, he added.

Smoking alone results in about a million deaths in India annually. And about 70 per cent of these deaths occur in the productive, 30-69 years age group.

Centre to expand India Inclusive Innovation Fund to $1 bn

The central government is looking at expanding its India Inclusive Innovation Fund aimed at promoting grass-root innovations to deliver modest social and economic returns, to $1 billion, according to Raghunath Mashelkar, chairman of National Innovation Foundation-India.

“The new government that has come in, has committed to increase the fund and, in fact, has made a provision towards this in the new Budget. It has progressed in completing the process and I hope that it will be implemented soon,” he told mediapersons on the sidelines of an event held in Hyderabad on Sunday.

At present, the India Inclusive Innovation Fund is restricted to Rs 500 crore. It invests in sectors like healthcare, water, energy and agriculture.

Earlier, delivering his keynote address at the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Mashelkar said the one word that he absolutely disliked was ‘Jugaad’ (a term applied to a creative or innovative idea providing a quick and alternative way of solving or fixing a problem).

“Jugaad has created a wrong image for India. It is about getting less from less. What we need is getting more for less, which is possible through affordable excellence,” he said.

LVPEI’s Innovation Centre-Srujana on Sunday inaugurated ReDx: Engineering the Eye workshop here. The centre was funded through the support of Cyient (formerly Infotech Enterprises Limited). About 100 engineering and design students from all across India will work on prototypes for their innovations at the week-long workshop.