Chinese pig
farmers have used excessive amounts of antibiotics in raising pigs to help them
grow faster and have a more appealing look, a practice which has impaired food
safety and human health, reports the website of Beijing-based Caijing magazine.
A joint
China-US research team investigated large pig farms with over 10,000 pigs in
Beijing, Fujian, and Zhejiang for three years and found that some pig farms in
China use drugs like antibiotics. By raising the pigs in such engineered
conditions, the farmers have had a part in creating drug-enduring germs which
have spread to neighboring areas via pig excrement.
The
research team detected 149 drug-enduring germs in the pig excrement of three
pig farms, as well as in the soil of neighboring farmland.
Many pig
farmers use an excessive amount of antibiotics to achieve better results
without considering the possible side effects, said an insider. Those
antibiotics are often mixed with feed for pigs to enhance the animals'
resistance to diseases.
Some germs
inside a pig's body can survive the use of antibiotics and develop into a
drug-resistant strain of the bacteria. These germs can then be transplanted to
human bodies by consuming the animal's meat, which means that over time
antibiotics will be ineffective in curing human diseases.
China's
Ministry of Agriculture has tried to address the issue by requiring farmers to
stop using feed additives or drugs in advance of butchering fowls and other
animals, as well as when collecting dairy products and eggs. The time window
between drug use and human consumption is designed to minimize the residues of
drugs in the bodies of fowls or other animals.
The time
requirement, however, has not been enforced strictly among farmers. Additives
mixed into animal feed have created another problem where many animals have
excessive amount of heavy metals, such as copper. The problem is aggravated
further by the Chinese custom of eating all parts of an animal.
Some
farmers mix additives containing arsenic, a heavy metal which is a carcinogen,
in order to endow their pigs with a healthy look and obtain higher prices.
China
claims to produce nearly half of the pigs raised worldwide and the large scale
of production amplifies the negative effect of the antibiotics and heavy metals
on the environment, Caijing said.
In 2007,
China produced 210,000 tons of antibiotics — the most in the world — 46% of
which was used in aninmal husbandry, according to a study.
The
discharge of excrement and urine of pigs, as well as the use of pig excrement
as fertilizer has polluted the agricultural environment, including the soil,
surface water, and ground water. The residues and bacteria from the excrement
is often absorbed into the crops, which are then eaten by humans causing a
major health risk.
Chinese pig
farms produce 618 million tons of pig excrement a year.
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