The breadth of livestock diseases and drugs routinely given to food animals could kill people's appetites, especially if the information were included on food labels or included in mainstream news reports.
For example, Merck & Co. drugs address poultry diseases like fowl pox, turkey coryza, bursal disease, coccidiosis, laryngotracheitis, hemorrhagic enteritis, avian encephalomyelitis, salmonella, E. coli and herpes. Yum.
Merck also sells drugs for diseases that pigs and cows contract like septicemia and Salmonella choleraesuis and Salmonella typhimurium and run of the mill pneumonia and diarrhea.
Aquaculture operations contaminate the environment with aluminium hydroxide, glucans, potassium aluminium sulphate or dimethyl sulphoxide. In unpublished interviews, FDA officials whose job includes toxin regulation, have said of dangerous food toxins, "We wait [to intervene] until people drop dead."
Drugs Used Routinely
The routine administration of antibiotics and inoculations flies under the food news radar-and are not reported by news stations. Why? Gross food reports sully media advertisers, who tend to be food sellers, and cast a government which authorizes the use of such drugs in a bad light.
Animals crowded together on industrial ("factory") farms the size of football fields obviously create a breeding ground for disease as we saw with Covid and see now with bird flu. Big food blames the rapidly mutating bird flu on "wild birds" but it has existed at least since the 1800s and not infected livestock until the introduction of intensive farming. (Does Big Food also blame the transmission of bird flu to cows and pigs on "wild birds"?)
In 2014, the World Health Organization declared that antibiotic resistance is a threat to global health. Growing antibiotic-resistance has rendered many antibiotics ineffective from their overuse in factory farm animals.
Research suggests a link between E. coli bacteria found in poultry and urinary tract infections (UTIs) in humans. E. coli strains including resistant strains have been traced to both poultry operations. Pass the wings?
Are There Drug Residues?
Do all those drugs cause residues which food consumers are eating? You bet. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) publishes a yearly residue report that screens food for the presence of veterinary drugs, pesticides and heavy metals in meat, poultry and processed egg products. Samples are tested for aluminum, copper, strontium, lead, zinc, eight other heavy metals and also arsenic-- yes, arsenic-- and whether the residues have a soil, petrochemicals/fuel, fertilizer, sewage, coal burning or other origin. USDA records expose farms that are repeat residue offenders and some say they only get a slap on the wrist.
Die-offs
A news media that does not cover food animal overmedication and dangers, certainly won't cover mass die-offs. For example, few to no one saw photos of the millions of US piglets that perished from the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus epidemic in 2013/2014; one-tenth of all US pigs died.
And how about African Swine Fever (ASF) reported to have killed one fourth of pigs in China? Some believe that ASF led to China opening the world's largest pork slaughterhouse in the world in Tar Heel, NC--to ensure a steady stream of pork for Chinese dinner tables.
Hatchery Horrors
More than 90 percent of broiler chickens in the US have been inoculated "in ovo," usually for Marek's (herpes), Gumboro and Newcastle diseases. The drugs are injected into the amniotic cavity at around day 18 or 19 of embryonic development.
To create new species, ovo "grafting" is also used--small pieces of tissue from a different animal are inserted into a chicken egg. The result is "Brave New World" chimeras like a quail-chick creation. Nice.
How To Avoid Animal Drugs
To spare yourself dangerous and unlabeled drugs used in food animals, eat GMO-free, US organic food that includes no animals. Speak out to your grocers and food suppliers, family and friends. The government should not serve industry instead of consumers but it now does. Finally, learn about pure, natural and chemical-free food online--a good place to start is Food Revolution Network drevolution.org/author/oceanr/
(Article changed on Jun 18, 2025 at 5:35 PM EDT)
(Article changed on Jun 18, 2025 at 6:40 PM EDT)
