1 / 60

Factory Farms, Antibiotics and Anthrax:

Factory Farms, Antibiotics and Anthrax:. Putting Profits Before Public Health Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP. Outline. Factory Farming Agricultural Antibiotics Cipro and Anthrax Bayer Conclusions. Factory Farming.

jamese
Download Presentation

Factory Farms, Antibiotics and Anthrax:

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Factory Farms, Antibiotics and Anthrax: Putting Profits Before Public Health Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP

  2. Outline • Factory Farming • Agricultural Antibiotics • Cipro and Anthrax • Bayer • Conclusions

  3. Factory Farming • Factory farms have replaced industrial factories as the # 1 polluters of American waterways • Large CAFOs make up 5% of livestock operations but produce more than 50% of food animals • 9,900 CAFOs in U.S. • Flourished thanks to indirect federal subsidies • Not subject to Clean Air Act Standards

  4. Factory Farming • 1.4 billion tons animal waste generated/yr in U.S. (13 billion tons worldwide) • 130 x human waste (in U.S.) • Cattle manure 1.2 billion tons • 16kg livestock feces and urine produced for every 0.3kg steak • Pig manure 116 million tons • Chicken droppings 14 million tons

  5. Factory Farm Waste • Overall number of hog farms down from 600,000 to 157,000 over the last 15yrs, while # of factory hog farms up 75% • 1 hog farm in NC generates as much sewage annualy as all of Manhattan

  6. Factory Farm Waste • Most untreated • Ferments in open pools • Seeps into local water supply, estuaries • Kills fish • Causes human infections - e.g., Pfisteria pescii,Chesapeake Bay

  7. Factory Farm Waste • Creates unbearable stench • Foul odors and contaminated water caused by CAFOs reduce property values in surrounding communities an estimated $26 billion nationally • Widely disseminated by floods/hurricanes

  8. Risks to Farm Workers, Marine Life • Antibiotic-resistant infections • Carriage of antibiotic-resistant organisms • Antibiotic-resistant land-based pathogens increasingly found in marine organisms

  9. Risks to Farm Workers • Aerosolized pig brains associated with immune polyradiculoneuropathy (progressive inflammatory neuropathy) in pork processing plant workers • ?Other similar illnesses?

  10. Agricultural Antibiotic Use • Agriculture accounts for 80% (29 million lbs) of U.S. antibiotic use • Use up 50% over the last 15 years • Only 10% used to actually treat infections • Almost 9 billion animals per year “treated” to “promote growth” • Claim: Larger animals, fewer infections in herd

  11. Agricultural Antibiotic Use • 84% of beef cattle, 83% of pigs, and 40-50% of poultry given non-therapeutic antibiotics • Arsenic used in chicken and pork feed (banned in Europe; roxarsone [major arsenic contributor] voluntarily withdrawn from U.S. market, but still sold overseas; Poison-Free Poultry Act pending in U.S. Congress)

  12. Consequences of Agricultural Antibiotic Use • Campylobacter fluoroquinolone resistance • Infections/carriage by swine farmers associated with inflammatory neuropathies • VREF (due to avoparcin use in chickens) • Gentamycin- and Cipro-resistant E. coli in chickens • Linked to E.coli UTIs in humans • 2009: Campylobacter found in 62%, Salmonella in 14%, and both in 8% of store-bought chickens

  13. Consequences of Agricultural Antibiotic Use • MRSA in pork, chickens • 49% of pigs and 45% of pig farmers harbor MRSA • MRSA from animals throught to be responsible for more than 20% of human MRSA cases in the Netherlands • H1N1 carriage rates very high in CAFO workers

  14. Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens • CDC: “Antibiotic use in food animals is the dominant source of antibiotic resistance among food-borne pathogens.” • CDC: 76 million people suffer foodborne illnesses each year in the U.S. • 325,000 hospitalizations • 5,000 deaths • > $156 billion/yr in medical costs, lost wages, and lost productivity

  15. Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens • EU bans use of all antibiotic growth promoters effective 1/1/06 • FDA bans off-label use of cephalosporins in food animals (2008) • Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act – awaiting vote in Congress

  16. Alternatives to Agricultural Antibiotic Use • Organic farming • Decrease overcrowding • Better diet/sanitation/living conditions • Control heat stress • Vaccination • Increased use of bacterial cultures and specific antibiotic treatment in animals when indicated

  17. Alternatives to Agricultural Antibiotic Use: Vegetarianism • ↓ water/grain needs • ↓ animal fecal waste • ↓ rendering/mad cow disease • ↓ rBGH (→ ↑IGF-1 in milk) • Health benefits • Meatpacking = most dangerous job in US

  18. Agricultural Antibiotics • Three years after a Danish ban on routing use of antibiotics in chicken farming, the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in chickens dropped from 82% to 12%

  19. Agricultural Antibiotics • 2008: USDA allows E. coli-tainted meat to be sold as pre-cooked hamburger patties, taco meat, pizza toppings, etc. • Multiple other food recalls since • Almost 9 million lbs of meat and poultry recalled in 2010

  20. Agricultural Antibiotics • 2010: AMA, AAP, APHA, IDS all oppose non-therapeutic antibiotic use in livestock • 2010: FDA urges phasing out antibiotic use

  21. Campylobacter • Most common food-borne infection in US • 2.5 million case of diarrhea and 100 deaths per year

  22. Campylobacter Resistance to Fluoroquinolones Increasing • 13% in 1998, 18% in 1999, 20-80% currently • Fluoroquinolone use up dramatically • Continues to increase • FDA proposed ban on fluoroquinolone use in poultry • Supported by APHA, PSR and others

  23. Fluoroquinolones • Animal Use • Sarafloxacin (Saraflox) – Abbott Labs – voluntarily withdrawn from market • Enrofloxacin (Baytril) – Bayer – FDA withdraws approval (7/05), ban effective 9/05 • Human Use • Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) - Bayer

  24. Anthrax • Cipro – patent expired 2004 • Doxycycline – generic • Penicillin - generic • Huge potential profits • 300 million Americans, others • 20-25% increase in Cipro sales one month after 2001 anthrax mailings, per the nation’s largest PBM

  25. Cipro • Was best selling antibiotic in the world for almost a decade • Sales down since off patent, lower than levofloxacin and moxifloxacin • Gross sales (first quarter of 2008) = $242 million

  26. Bayer and Cipro • 1997 onward – Bayer pays Barr Pharmaceuticals and two other competitors $200 million not to manufacture generic ciprofloxacin, despite a federal judge’s 1995 decision allowing it to do so • Ultimately absolved of wrongdoing: “anticompetitive effects … were within the exclusionary zone of the patent, and thus could not be redressed by federal antitrust law.”

  27. Cost of Cipro • Drugstore = $4.50/pill • 2002: US government agreed to buy 100 million tablets for $0.95 per pill (twice what is paid under other government-sponsored public health programs) • A full course of ciprofloxacin for postexposure prophylaxis (60 days) would then cost the government $204 per person treated, compared with $12 per person treated with doxycycline

  28. Cost of Cipro • US government has the authority, under existing law, to license generic production of ciprofloxacin by other companies for as little as $0.20/pill in the event of a public health emergency • It did not, but it cut a deal with Bayer to reduce the price of Cipro • Canada did override Bayer’s patent and ordered 1 million tablets from a Canadian manufacturer

  29. Why? • Weakening of case at WTO meetings that the massive suffering consequent to 25 million AIDS cases in Sub-Saharan Africa did not constitute enough of a public health emergency to permit those countries to obtain and produce cheaper generic versions of largely unavailable AIDS drugs

  30. Other Consequences • Opens door to other situations involving parallel importing and compulsory licensing • Threatens pharmaceutical industry’s massive profits • the most profitable industry in the US

  31. Other Consequences • Weakens pharmaceutical industry’s grip on legislators • $110 million dollars spent on lobbying in the first half of 2010 • 1,228 lobbyists (2.3 for every member of Congress) • Revolving door between legislators, lobbyists, executives and government officials

  32. Bayer • Based in Leverkusen, Germany • 107,000 employees worldwide (2008) • Revenue: €31.16 billion (2009) • Pre-tax profits: €6.47 billion (2009) • US = largest market

  33. Bayer • Consists of Bayer HealthCare, Bayer MaterialScience, and Bayer CropScience • Pharmaceuticals • World’s leading pesticide manufacturer • One of world’s largest seed companies • Manufacters bis-phenol A (BPA)

  34. Bayer • Number one biotech company in Europe (after 2001 purchase of Aventis CropScience) • Controls over half of genetically-modified crop varieties up for approval for commercial use • Risks of GMOs

  35. History of Bayer • Trademarked heroin in 1898 • Marketed as cough syrup for children “without side effects”, despite well-known dangers of addiction • Patented acetylsalicylic acid as aspirin in 1899

  36. History of Bayer • WW I: invented modern chemical warfare; developed “School for Chemical Warfare” • WW II: part of IG Farben conglomerate, which exploited slave labor at Auschwitz, conducted unethical human subject experiments (including funding Mengele) • Manufactured and supplied Zyklon B (without usual odorant) to the SS for use in gas chambers

  37. History of Bayer • 24 board members and executives indicted in Nuremberg Trials • 13 received prison sentences • Longest sentence to Fritz Meer • Convicted for plunder, slavery, and mass murder • Released from prison in 1952 • Chairman of supervisory board of Bayer 1956-1964

  38. History of Bayer • Early 1990s – admitted knowingly selling HIV-tainted blood clotting products which infected up to 50% of hemophiliacs in some developed countries • US Class action suits settled for $100,000 per claimant • European taxpayers left to foot most of bill

  39. History of Bayer • 1995 onward - failed to follow promise to withdraw its most toxic pesticides from the market • Failed to educate farmers in developing nations re pesticide health risks • 2 to 10 million poisonings / 200,000 deaths per year due to pesticides (WHO)

  40. History of Bayer • 1998 –pays Scottish adult volunteers $750 to swallow doses of the insecticide Guthion to “prove product’s safety” • Sued the FDA to lift moratorium on human-derived data • 2000 – cited by FDA and FTC for misleading claims regarding aspirin and heart attacks/strokes

  41. History of Bayer • 2000 – fined by OSHA for workplace safety violations related to MDA (carcinogen) exposures • 2000 – fined by Commerce Dept. for violations of export laws

  42. History of Bayer • 2001 – FDA-reported violations in quality control contribute to worldwide clotting factor shortage for hemophiliacs • 2002 - Baycol (cholesterol lowering drug) withdrawn from market • Linked to 100 deaths and 1600 injuries • Accused by Germany’s health minister of failing to inform government of lethal side effects for 2 months

  43. History of Bayer • 2006: Bayer CropScience genetically-modified, herbicide-tolerant “Liberty Link” rice contaminates U.S. food supply • Bayer keeps contamination secret for 6 months, then US government takes another 18 days to respond • Places $1.5 billion industry at risk

  44. History of Bayer • Worldwide cost estimates range from $740 million to $1.3 billion • Bayer loses first three cases for total $53.5 million • Later agrees to pay up to $750 million to farmers in Missouri and 4 other states

  45. History of Bayer • “Liberty Link” rice contamination: • 9/06: 33/162 EU samples tested positive for Liberty Link contamination • EU initially requires testing of all imported rice, then stops in response to US pressure • Japan ban imports of US rice • Over 1,200 lawsuits

  46. History of Bayer • 2007: Member of rubber cartel fined $356 million by European Commission • 2007: Bayer suspends sales of Traysol (aprotinin) 2 years after data show increased deaths in heart surgery patients (Bayer withheld data) • 2008: FDA warns Bayer re unapproved marketing claims for Bayer Women’s Low Dose Aspirin plus Calcium and Bayer Heart Advantage

  47. History of Bayer • 2008: Explosion at Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, WV, kills 2 workers • Above-ground storage tank that can hold up to 40,000 lbs of methyl isocyanate) located 50-75 ft from blast area • Underground storage tank at plant site can store an additional 200,000 lbs

  48. Comparison: Bhopal • 50,000 to 90,000 pounds of methylisocyanate released in Union Carbide Bhopal, India explosion • 7000-10,000 dead within 3 days, 15,000-20,000 more over next 10 years; tens of thousands injured • Persistent water and soil contamination

  49. History of Bayer • 2009: $4 million settlement reached re 2006 release of chemical odorant propyl mercaptan and organophosphate pesticide Mocap from Bayer Cropscience plant in Alabama in 2006, which caused 2 deaths • 2009: Sued by CSPI for false claims about selenium in its “One A Day Men’s Health Formula” multivitamin reducing prostate cancer risk

  50. History of Bayer • 2009: Bayer ordered by FDA and a number of states attorneys general to run a $20 million corrective advertising campaign about its birth control pill Yaz • Failed to inform FDA and public re risks of VTE • Facing thousands of personal injury lawsuits

More Related