Infected, not recovering? Blame it on the tandoori chicken: Study

New Delhi, July 23

Love for chicken delicacies—be it butter chicken or fried—may involve a health risk for not only Indians, but the entire world, a new study warns.

According to the Indo-American study, Punjab, famous for its large and crowded poultry farms, may be sprouting “superbugs” or bacteria that are resistant to routine antibiotics.

The study reports high prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria detected in poultry farms in Punjab and warns of potentially disastrous consequences on human health due to use of growth-promoting antibiotics in animal farming.

“The world is on the brink of losing these miracle cures,” said recently-retired WHO Director-General Margaret Chan referring to antibiotics that were hailed as “wonder drugs”.

Crowded poultry farms could be breeding superbugs in Punjab, finds the new study.

Next time you get an infection that is hard to cure by routine antibiotics, a phenomenon ominously called the emergence of superbugs, one may want to blame the poultry farms, especially from Punjab, where, experts say, use of antibiotics is rampant for rapidly fattening chickens.

Poultry farms are deploying antibiotics not to treat sick animals, but to fatten them quickly. The study led by researchers from the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP), Washington DC, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives finds high levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in chickens raised for both meat and eggs on farms in Punjab.

The study raises serious concerns over the use of antibiotics for growth promotion in farm animals. “Overuse of antibiotics in animal farms endangers us all as it multiplies drug resistance in the environment,” said study author and CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan.

“Punjab is one of the leading states in India in poultry farming. It is critical that we take measures to end the use of antibiotics for growth promotion in animal breeding practices.”

According to the WHO, Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi.

The Punjab poultry farm survey is largest study of its kind looking at sources of AMR ever to be conducted in India. Researchers collected more than 1,500 samples from 530 birds at 18 poultry farms in six districts of Punjab and tested these for resistance to a range of antibiotics.

Two-thirds of the farms reported using antibiotics for growth promotion; these farms were also nearly three times more likely to report multi-drug resistant bacteria than those that did not use antibiotics for growth promotion. “AMR has huge implications for India” says Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO representative in India.

Unfortunately, some of the blame falls on the lifeless but tasty tandoori chicken. — PTI

Punjab poultry farms breeding superbugs

• An infection that is hard to cure may be due to the emergence of sprouting superbugs or bacteria resistant to antibiotics
• Poultry products, especially from Punjab, may be the reason behind this phenomenon, as per an Indo-American study
• Experts say many poultry farms use antibiotics not to treat sick birds, but to fatten them quickly, leading to antibiotic resistance