Summer 2005 Issue
Get Smart on the Farm
CDC Foundation Helps CDC Address Antimicrobial Resistance
The CDC Foundation builds partnerships to support CDC’s education campaigns that promote the discriminating use of antimicrobial agents, including Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work and the Campaign to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance in Healthcare Settings. Some of the Foundation’s very first partnerships supported research that provided the groundwork for these important national campaigns. To learn more aboud CDC’s fight against resistance and the partners involved, visit www.cdc.gov/getsmart.
“You introduce an antibiotic, you get resistance. That’s just how the world works,” says Tom Chiller, an epidemiologist and medical director of CDC’s Get Smart on the Farm program. “The question is how can you keep resistance in check so that you can continue to use that antibiotic.”
Penicillin, ciprofloxacin and erythromycin are a few of the antibiotics that doctors rely on as superpower infection fighters. But because they are being used too often and in the wrong situations, they no longer guarantee the same healing punch. The villains that then wreak havoc are antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
In a microscopic illustration of “survival of the fittest,” antibiotics kill some bacteria, but other bacteria have properties that help them survive. These survivor bacteria can cause illnesses – from wound infections to pneumonia – that are resistant to many antibiotic treatments. These resistant illnesses can lead to extended hospital stays, severe side effects from “last resort” drugs, and serious progressive infections that can be fatal.
CDC is working to combat the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria through a group of education campaigns called Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work. Because an estimated 70 percent of antibiotics and related drugs produced in the United States are used on livestock, Get Smart on the Farm is an important component of the overall campaign.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria can move from animals to humans through the food supply. Bacteria like Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli are commonly found in food animals and sometimes contaminate meat during the slaughter and packaging process. If the meat is not prepared properly, the bacteria can infect humans. Bacteria from animals also infect humans via the environment – animals excrete bacteria in manure, which can contaminate ground and surface water systems around large farms or contaminate produce if the manure is used as fertilizer. An increasing percentage of the bacteria that move from agricultural animals to humans is now resistant to antibiotics.
“Salmonella is bad news. Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella is really bad news,” says Tom Chiller, medical director of Get Smart on the Farm. “Even if they don’t make us sick, those bacteria can swap genes with other bacteria in our intestinal tract, creating more and more strains of drug-resistant bacteria that can multiply and cause numerous types of nasty infections.”
“No one wants to not treat sick animals,” emphasizes Chiller. “The problem is that antibiotics are given to animals even when they’re not sick.”
Giving animals antibiotics in regular low doses has long been considered a means to prevent illness and promote growth. “Essentially, the belief is that an antibiotic-rich diet equals big juicy chickens,” says Chiller. “But, research indicates that these claims are doubtful.”
Studies show that farms have remained productive in many European countries where officials banned using antibiotics to promote growth. According to Chiller, however, the scientific community has little doubt that these regular low doses of antibiotics are a major factor in the emergence of resistant bacteria. But the practice has endured for so many generations that farmers are reluctant to change for fear of endangering their animals’ health and their farms’ productivity. Many farmers are not even aware they’re continuing the practice, not realizing that their “nutritionally supplemented” feed contains antibiotics.
“CDC has substantial credibility with health departments and hospitals,” says Chiller. “But we have very little influence over chicken and dairy farms.” For this reason, the goals of Get Smart on the Farm are not about telling farmers what to do, but about getting the key players in farming and food production together to collectively answer questions like: What exactly is the problem? What can we do about it? And how do we get others on board?
“We want to be a conduit that brings together partners and helps them communicate,” says Chiller. “We want to identify successful programs that are coming from veterinarians and food producers at the local level, and share those strategies with others in the industry.”
Get Smart on the Farm will build partnerships that 1) educate the food industry about farm management techniques that control infection and promote healthy growth without using antibiotics, 2) provide veterinarians and farm workers with more information and guidelines on the appropriate uses of antibiotics and 3) increase consumer awareness of available food products derived from animals that were not given antibiotics inappropriately.
To accomplish these goals, Get Smart on the Farm is approaching a variety of potential partners: veterinarians, farmers, food producers and packagers, food retailers, consumer groups and regulatory agencies. Each can play a significant role in fighting antibiotic resistance.
The CDC Foundation provides the mechanism for these private sector organizations to partner with each other and with CDC researchers to combat the problem. “The funds our program received through the CDC Foundation have been instrumental to the success of our program,” says Patricia Cook, program director of Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work. “It has been a wonderful way to partner with private sector organizations that recognize the importance of the issue.”
To learn more about supporting Get Smart on the Farm, please contact Julie Rodgers at (404) 653-0790.