A new study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) shows that rampant misuse of antibiotics in poultry farms and unsafe disposal of poultry waste in fields can give rise to drug-resistance in humans.
Samples of litter and soil were collected from 12 poultry farms in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab. Upto 217 isolates of three bacteria - E. Coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus lentus – were extracted from the samples. These bacteria samples were tested for resistance to 16 antibiotics.
The study found that 100 per cent of E. coli, 92 per cent of Klebsiella pneumoniae and 78 per cent of Staphylococcus lentus isolated from the poultry environment were multi-drug resistant.
About 40 per cent of E. coli and 30 per cent of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were resistant to at least 10 out of 13 antibiotics. Also, both E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae had very high resistance to antibiotics of critical importance to humans such as penicillins, fluoroquinolones, third and fourth generation cephalosporins and carbapenems, used as last-resort antibiotics in hospitals.
“In humans, E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae cause infections which are becoming difficult to treat due to high antibiotic resistance. Disturbingly, we found very high resistance in E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from the poultry environment. In some isolates, all antibiotics that we tested were ineffective. If these bacteria infect a human, then hardly any medicine will work as cure,” said Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General, CSE.
Antibiotic misuse is common in the poultry sector, Bhushan said. “What makes the situation worse is that the sector is also plagued by poor waste management. Therefore, we first wanted to understand the extent of antibiotic-resistance in the poultry environment, and then establish if the resistant bacteria was moving out of the poultry farms into the environment through waste disposal,” he added.
Amit Khurana, senior programme manager, food safety and toxins team, CSE, explains, “Dumping poultry waste on fields can lead to bacteria seeping into groundwater and food, and infect agricultural workers and animals, becoming a public health threat.”
AT A GLANCE
- Antibiotic-laced poultry litter that reaches fields can enter the food chain and lead to antibiotic resistance in humans and other animals
