Farm animal in northeast China are
becoming more resistance to common antimicrobial drugs, this is a rising and
worrying trend in the region as meat production and demand has increased. The
drug resistance Is not just confined to China but is also spreading in Kenya,
Uruguay, and Brazil. Since the increased meat production after 2000 and
intensive farming practices, the use of antibiotics increased to promote growth
and prevent infections, the impact of which can be felt by the meat industry.
According to the research conducted by
Thomas Van Boeckel, an epidemiologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich, the most common bacteria that have been identified is
Salmonella, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus, and E-Coli. The research also
indicates that four types of antimicrobial drug have been used in farm animals
to help them gain weight, and these are the drugs with the highest resistance
rates. The proportions of drugs to which bacteria have become resistance have
almost tripled in chickens between 2000 and 2018. The statistics indicate a
serious condition because China is on the verge of becoming the world largest
poultry product exporter in the world.
Researchers believe that even if the
government implement policies to control the use of antibiotics in animals,
those efforts could get undermined if the country import poultry that has not
been produced using the same standards.
The problem is beyond political borders and requires special attention
especially from the high-income countries. China has strict import policies
when it comes to importation of poultry from countries and there are many
projects that have been initiated to control the usages of antibiotics in the
Chinese poultry industry.
Recently, a project by the name of
Farmwatch has been launched by the partnership of China National Centre For
food Safety Risk Assessment and the University of Nottingham's School of
Veterinary Medicine and Science. The project will use machine learning to find
new ways to identify and pinpoint diseases in poultry farms in China, reducing
the need for antibiotics treatment and lowering the risk of antibiotics
resistance transferring to humans. The researcher associated with the project
will be taking thousands of samples from chickens and humans on 9 farms in 3
Chinese provinces over the period of 3 years.
The data collected will then allow early intervention and treatment,
reducing the spread and the need for antibiotics. This project will not only
contribute towards sustainable development in China through improved health and
well-being of population but will improve the international confidence in the
poultry products exported from China.