PRESS RELEASE

BY COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING (SOUTH AFRICA)

CONTACT PERSON: LOUISE VAN DER MERWE

CONTACT DETAILS:TEL/FAX 021 852 4402; MOBILE 083 441 0171

A COPY OF THE UWC REPORT FEATURED IN THIS ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST

‘SCARY’ REPORT SHOWS SOUTH AFRICA’S POOR ARE BEING DISHED OUT POTENTIALLY TOXIC FOOD

The systematic sale of live chickens to disadvantaged communities for informal slaughter, has potentially lethal consequences especially for the very young, very old and those carrying the HIV-Aids virus.

Compassion in World Farming (South Africa) recently took four randomly selected chickens, sold live to residents in Khayelitsha, near Cape Town, to the University of the Western Cape (UWC) for testing. In a shock report, described as ‘scary’ by one senior microbiologist, the UWC tests revealed that the chickens were contaminated by a range of disease-causing bacteria. Moreover, some of the bacteria, which, if ingested or handled, could cause severe bloody diarrhoea, vomiting, skin ulceration, abscess formation and even typhoid fever, showed 100% resistance to commonly used antibiotics. This means that certain antibiotics, namely oxacillin, vancomycin and methicillin, would be useless in the treatment of people made ill by ingesting these particular bacteria on the chickens. The antibiotics tetracycline, streptomycin and gentamicin also showed significantly reduced effectiveness.

Antibiotics are routinely used on factory farms both to promote growth and to decrease the risk of disease outbreaks. However, the UWC report, released by its Food Microbiology Department, blames the multiple antibiotic resistance now being displayed by bacterial strains, on the routine use and overuse of antibiotics on the factory farm. "Laws of evolution dictate that microbes will eventually develop resistance to practically any antibiotic," the report states.

Among the bacteria contaminating the chickens, were salmonella, staphylococcus and enterobacteriaceae. All are faecal bacteria. Asked for comment, a senior microbiologist at the University of Cape Town who wishes not to be identified, said the UWC results were ‘scary’. "The figures are shocking. All these bacteria can cause serious illness, even death. Moreover, even if the bacteria in question were eliminated by thorough cooking, sometimes the toxins they secrete are not sensitive to heat and they too, can cause serious illness, even death," she said.

She added: "The trouble is that the selling of live animals to disadvantaged communities for slaughter, is an unregulated industry and there is no responsibility on anyone to ensure the health of the animals sold in these communities. The people most at risk are the babies and children, the elderly and those affected with HIV/Aids. People get these bacteria onto their hands and take them into their homes. The fact that the bacteria showed such high resistance to antibiotics is of grave concern. The resistance shown to vancomycin is particularly worrying. It is a front-line antibiotic used to treat all sorts of infections in humans including chest infections and infection of the heart muscle."

The microbiologist said she believed that factory farming of animals had to give way to more humane farming – for the sake of humanity, human health and from the economic point of view too. "Huge amounts of money are spent on antibiotics to prop up animals on factory farms. And the result is that we are destroying the life-saving miracle of antibiotics," she said.

Gwen Dumo, community health worker in Khayelitsha, confirmed that large numbers of people she attended, complained of seemingly inexplicable bloody diarrhoea and skin ulceration problems.

Louise van der Merwe, SA representative for Compassion in World Farming, commented: "For thirteen years we have asked the authorities to stop the sale to disadvantaged communities of animals no longer considered productive by the factory farms. The animals involved are the end-of-lay chickens, the broiler parent stock, pigs and unwanted new-born male calves. The suffering of these animals is horrendous. In addition, we believe no child should be forced to grow up playing on bloodied newspaper, witnessing endless slaughter. Now, it is even more apparent that the sale of live animals for informal slaughter must stop, for the sake of the health of the very people they are meant to feed."

In a related development a veterinary spokesperson for the Maitland Abattoir near Cape Town also confirmed that the informal slaughter of pigs in disadvantaged communities placed people at high risk of contracting potentially dangerous tapeworm infestation.

A paediatrician at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town said that the incidence of children from disadvantaged and rural communities being admitted with tapeworm complications was ‘fairly high’. He said most children were admitted only when the hydatid cyst of the tapeworm lodged in the brain causing fits, epilepsy and occasionally, death.

ENDS