Indian poultry farms are breeding superbugs, study finds

Vancouver

INDIAN poultry farms are not just rearing chickens - they are also breeding germs capable of thwarting all but the most potent antibiotics, researchers found.

Random tests on 18 poultry farms raising about 50,000 birds each in India's north-western state of Punjab found that two-thirds of the fowl harboured bacteria that produce special enzymes, known as extended-spectrum beta-lactamase, or ESBL, that destroy most penicillin and cephalosporin-based antibiotics. Of the tested birds destined for meat consumption, 87 per cent had the super germs, a study published last Thursday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives showed. That compared with 42 per cent of egg-laying hens.

Farms supplying India's biggest poultry-meat companies routinely use medicines classified by the World Health Organization as "critically important" as a way of staving off disease, an investigation by Bloomberg News showed last year. The latest research, the largest of its kind in India to date, highlights the consequence of this for the nation's food supp…