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Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change to ‘outsmart’ or resist antibiotic medicine, making it close to impossible to treat the infection. The bacterium that carries resistance genes to many different antibiotics is called a superbugs. Most of these infections occur in hospitals or in medical care facilities, such as nursing homes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that more than two million people are infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria every year. More than 23,000 people die from these infections each year. Experts say that if the epidemic is not brought under control, superbugs may kill more people than cancer by the year 2050.
A new report has given a failing grade to 22 of the top 25 burger chains in the US due to the use of beef from cows that were fed antibiotics. Only two chains, Shake Shack and Burger Fi, received As for serving burgers that were made of meat taken from cows that didn’t have medication in their feed.
But 21 other chains, including McDonald’s, Burger King, In-N-Out and Whataburger, received an F ‘for lacking any announced policy to source beef raised without the routine use of antibiotics.’ Wendy’s scraped by with a D minus.
The authors of the 2018 Chain Reaction Report said they hope the findings inspire lawmakers to bring about federal policy changes that reduce routine antibiotic use in the livestock sector.
Lena Brook, lead researcher of the report and interim director of the food and agriculture program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the organizations that worked on the report, said the group first looked into antibiotics in poultry.
They were encouraged after seeing the reduction of antibiotics in poultry used by fast food restaurants, which led them to look at burgers. Burgers are one of the most popular – and vilified foods – in the US.
In a report published last year by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it is estimated that 43 percent of medically important antimicrobials were used in cattle while just six percent is put towards chicken and nine percent towards turkeys.
Fast food chains were chosen for the top 25 list by how much they made in US sales. The restaurants were then judged in three areas: if they had made a pledge or policy to stop using antibiotics, if they were implementing the pledge or policy, and if the NRDC could verify this.
Based on this criteria, Shake Shack and BurgerFi came in as the only two chains found to have a policy in place for serving beef from cows that weren’t fed antibiotics.
The growth of antibiotic resistance has been driven by several factors including the over-prescription of drugs for viruses, (which are not a bacterium and therefore ineffective in treatment), incorrect prescriptions and doses, and the drugs’ use in agriculture.
The World Health Organization says antibiotic resistance has ‘accelerated’ due to the misuse of antibiotics, in both humans and animals. Antibiotics are not just used to treat sick animals, but also to help them grow faster and to prevent disease before it even strikes.