Environmental Defense has ranked Ohio 25th among states in the estimated use of antibiotics as feed additives for chickens, hogs and beef cattle.
The group also has ranked Holmes, Coshocton and Stark counties in the top 10 in the state in pounds per year of all antibiotic feed used for nontherapeutic reasons.
Tuscarawas County is ranked 15th, while its neighboring counties, Harrison and Carroll, are ranked 63rd and 68th, respectively.
Environmental Defense recently released the information in a report, "Resistant Bugs and Antibiotic Drugs: Local Estimates of Antibiotics in Agricultural Feed and Animal Waste."
According to its Web site, Environmental Defense is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 400,000 members dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people.
Its report contends that overuse of antibiotics in agriculture is widely regarded as contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten human health.
The report also states that antibiotics are added to feed not to treat sick animals, but rather to promote slightly faster growth or prevent disease that could result from crowded, stressful conditions.
The group estimates that almost all (90 percent) of the 26.5 million pounds of antibiotics estimated to be used in the U.S. as feed additives each year occurs in 23 states and is seven times the amount used each year in human medicine nationwide.
Kristy Meyer, outreach coordinator for the Ohio Environmental Council at Columbus, said the report uses estimates because there is no governmental body that actually tracks data on the use of antibiotics in feed.
"That's why we're pushing the Treatment Act," Meyer said, referring to the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, a combined U.S Senate and House Bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
Environmental Defense says the bipartisan Senate version of the bill authorizes funds to farmers to help defray costs of phasing out non-therapeutic use of medically important antibiotics, and provides for research and demonstration projects to assist farmers in the transition.
Brown, contacted through his press secretary by e-mail, said he has worked for several Congresses to draw attention to the critical and growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
"I am extremely pleased the House has begun to address this critical public health issue with strong bipartisan support," Brown wrote.
When asked about the Environmental Defense group's use of estimates when there are no statistics available from other agencies, Brown replied:
"The Environmental Defense report relies on antibiotic use estimates developed by the Union of Concerned Scientists, and I am confident in the technical expertise of both organizations."
Brown included with his comments a press release that states the U.S.
House of Representatives Wednesday night passed a measure to ban the federal school lunch program from purchasing poultry treated with Cipro-like antibiotics because the use promotes the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause severe food poisoning.
The amendment to the Fiscal Year 2006 Agriculture appropriations bill, offered by Brown, is similar to an amendment offered by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, that the Senate passed in November 2003 as part of the Fiscal year 2004 Agriculture appropriations bill, according to the press release.
One Tuscarawas County hog farmer, Bill Young of Stone Creek, said he doesn't use any antibiotics as a routine feed supplement.
Antibiotics aren't used on his farm, he said, "unless it is absolutely necessary - then only three to five days." And they aren't used as a feed supplement.
Young said he only supplies his hogs with a low-level antibiotic in their water whenever they develop a cough.
"We have to be very careful with withdrawal, and have to watch what we use," he said.
Young maintains that there is no way a hog farmer can feed 2,000 hogs without, at times, medicating them. "If a hog gets sick, you don't just let it die - like humans, they are treated," he said.
Dr. Bill Shulaw, an Ohio State University Extension Service veterinarian, said that while some farmers use antibiotics for therapy and nontherapeutic purposes, "the big argument is the amount."
Shulaw said the use of antibiotics is regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration, which has developed statutory guidelines for elevators and co-op organizations that provide animal feed.
He said the guidelines apply both to commercial firms and farm use.
Shulaw said there is much concern about antimicrobials used in agriculture causing resistant organisms that affect people, but the data isn't extremely clear yet.
"If it is occurring, it is not easily recognizable," Shulaw said. "It all depends on who you talk to as to the actual data."
Shulaw noted that the issue has been debated for 35 years and there still is no consensus in the scientific community. He said it is a hot topic and deals with important issues, and the industries are trying to respond to those concerns.New Philadelphia Times Reporter, OH
