Comment | Hey KFC: Help save antibiotics
Matthew Wellington and Craig Martin
It's springtime in Kentucky, and when you go to Jefferson Memorial Forest, Iroquois Park, or any open space, you'll hear the welcome sound of children playing.
But there is a threat afoot and, if immediate action isn't taken, springtime may be much quieter in the not-so-distant future.
More than 50 years ago Rachel Carson warned in "Silent Spring" that overusing insecticides like DDT could change the world as we know it. Now there is a different, and equally worrisome, threat to future generations – the overuse of antibiotics.
The overuse of antibiotics threatens to crumble the foundations of modern medicine,
Experts from nearly every major public health group, from the World Health Organization to the Society of Infectious Disease Pharmacists, warn that if we don't stop the widespread overuse of these drugs, antibiotics may stop working altogether. That means common infections could once again turn deadly, and modern advancements, like surgery, would be much more dangerous, if not impossible.
Roughly 70 percent of medically important antibiotics sold in the United States are for use on livestock and poultry animals, not people. Many farms administer these antibiotics on a regular basis to animals that aren't sick in order to promote growth and prevent disease brought on by often unsanitary conditions. That routine use turns farms into breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can travel off farms and into communities. There, they can potentially infect people with difficult-to-treat, sometimes fatal illnesses. Already the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that at least 23,000 Americans a year die from such infections.
The Society of Infectious Disease Pharmacists recently released a position statement detailing the increased risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria due to overusing antibiotics for non-therapeutic use in agriculture.
As public health experts sound the alarm, consumers are increasingly looking to purchase meat raised without routine antibiotics. Some major fast food chains are taking steps to meet that demand and, in the process, are helping to protect these life-saving medicines.
When major fast food chains commit to stop serving meat raised on routine antibiotics, their suppliers need to adapt or risk losing big customers. In March of 2015, McDonald's said it would stop serving chicken raised on medically important antibiotics. Shortly after that,Tyson Foods, a major U.S. chicken producer and a McDonald's supplier, announced it would no longer raise chickens with human antibiotics.
Since the McDonald's announcement, Subway, which boasts more restaurants than any other chain in the United States, said it would stop serving any meat raised on antibiotics, and Taco Bell, a subsidiary of YUM Brands, which also operates KFC, announced a policy on chicken similar to that of McDonald's this April. The chains all cited consumer demand and concern for public health as the driving forces behind the change.
So far, Louisville's own KFC has left a commitment to chicken raised without routine antibiotics off the table, while its competitors, including Chick-fil-A, move forward on the issue.
Without effective antibiotics, parents would have cause to fear their children playing outside, where they might get a minor cut that could turn into a potentially life-threatening infection.
KFC should join other leaders in the restaurant industry in committing to stop serving chicken raised on routine antibiotics. By doing so, they will help protect these medicines for future generations, and keep springtime loud with the sounds of children playing for years to come.
Matthew Wellington is field director of the U.S. PIRG Antibiotics Program; Craig Martin is a PharmD at the Society of Infectious Disease Pharmacists.