Breaking – Three UK supermarkets sell antibiotic dosed chickens linked to deadly superbug outbreak

Three UK supermarkets sell antibiotic dosed chickens linked to deadly superbug outbreak | ITV News

Three of the UK’s biggest supermarkets are sourcing chickens dosed with antibiotics by a poultry producer in Poland linked to the spread of deadly superbugs.

An investigation by ITV News, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and The Guardian has discovered Asda, Iceland and Lidl are buying frozen chicken products from SuperDrob – a major European meat supplier – who we’ve discovered was the source of an outbreak of antibiotic resistant Salmonella in the UK and Europe in 2020, which killed five people and infected around 1,300 others. 

A letter obtained via Freedom of Information request from the UK’s Chief Veterinary Office Christine Middlemiss to her Polish counterpart in December 2020 stated her investigations “have now firmly linked the outbreaks with frozen, raw breaded chicken products imported from Poland, and to a specific poultry production company in Poland”. SuperDrob is then named in the letter as the company. 

Two and half years on, we carried out tests of waste samples collected from different poultry farms in different locations in Poland which produce chickens for SuperDrob, to see if antibiotics are being given to the chickens. The results indicated they are.

The samples tested positive for bacteria – including E. Coli, a source of food poisoning in humans – resistant to fluoroquinolones, the same group of antibiotics used in humans to treat life threatening infections. 

The tests were carried out at the University of Oxford by Professor of Medical Microbiology, Tim Walsh and his team. He told ITV News it is “extremely concerning” that the same antibiotics used to treat sickness in human beings are still being used in animals. 

“There is a direct link between the use of antibiotics in farms and the resistance that occurs, and then what happens in the human population,” he said. 

“We found enrofloxacin resistance, which would then give resistance to a drug that is a very similar drug we use in humans called ciprofloxacin. So, the use of enrofloxacin on the farms would actually mediate resistance to a human antibiotic, which is really important. 

“We know that this shouldn’t be happening but regrettably it seems to continue.” 

The samples also tested positive for colistin; an antibiotic of last resort used to treat very serious infections in humans. 

“Colistin should be banned for use in animals per se,” argues Professor Walsh. 

He likened the rise of antibiotic resistance to the whole human race “staring down the barrel of a gun”, or “a slow tsunami coming towards us.” 

The World Health Organisation has declared antimicrobial resistance a top global public health threat, directly killing more than 1.2 million people and associated with five million deaths in 2019. 

The United Nations estimates up to ten million deaths could be caused by superbugs and associated forms of antimicrobial resistance by 2050, matching the annual global death toll of cancer.  

As a result, the use of antibiotics in farming is subject to strict rules. 

Last year the European Union banned the excessive and routine use of antibiotics in farm animals as compensation for unhygienic cramped conditions where diseases like salmonella and E. coli can easily spread, often on factory farms. 

The new regulations mean that only sick, individual animals may be administered antibiotics.  

SuperDrob told us antibiotics are used in their chickens, and the company does not deny using the same groups of antibiotics used to treat human infection. 

A spokesperson said: “SuperDrob has imposed a reduction policy of a minimum of 10% year-on-year, with a view to phasing out the use of enrofloxacin and colistin in poultry treatment by the end of 2025.  This policy was initiated in 2020 and SuperDrob has achieved at least the minimum reduction each year.   

“Antibiotics are only used in SuperDrob’s farms or in the farms of its suppliers when (1) recommended by a veterinarian, and (2) justified by presence of a disease and where administration of antibiotics would achieve therapeutic success. The whole treatment process is recommended, supervised, and coordinated by the Government veterinarian based on knowledge, case analysis, results of testing.” 

SuperDrob declined to comment on the salmonella outbreak in 2020. 

Wow, what a surprise (I dont think)– Mark