Poultry, politics, and antibiotic resistance.

摘要

The 18 000 chickens wedged together at John Neil's feet form a vast carpet of feathers, beaks, and tiny red-ringed eyes across the dimly-lit barn where the birds are being raised. Several lines of troughs, delivering food and water, snake through the mass of chickens and every so often pellets of food are released to them. "The food and water most likely contain drugs", says Neil, who audits the disclosure of drug use on 1100 chicken farms for the Chicken Farmers of Ontario, a Canadian industry lobby group. "The chickens are raised in their own excrement", Neil admits, "because that saves farmers the cost of having to change their litter during the 40 days they spend here before slaughter". In this environment, which teams with parasites and bacteria, Neil acknowledges the chickens are likely getting vaccines, anticoccidials, and what he vaguely refers to as "curatives". But on the question of whether the birds are getting antibiotics, Neil demurs, "I'm not seeing a whole lot of antibiotics".