Intensive farming: the potential risks to human health

As opposition to the proposed mega pig farm in Foston, Derbyshire is mounting, local MPs are pondering over whether to give the go ahead. The farm would house 2,500 sows and produce 52,000 pigs each year. Although plans have been rejected by South Derbyshire District Council, the verdict from Derbyshire County Council is yet to come. If the plans go through, it will set a precedent: a significant move towards the kind of large-scale farming found on the other side of the Atlantic. We have already highlighted the animal welfare issues surrounding intensive pig rearing. It is also worth remembering that there are potential risks to human health as well.

The main issue in intensive farming is the prevalence of disease. Because of the confined conditions which animals are kept in, disease spreads quickly through the group. Furthermore, animals in these cramped conditions tend to be less healthy than their free range counterparts, which makes them more susceptible to disease in the first place. There is often pressure to achieve very high yields and so routine antibiotic treatment is the norm. Low-level but continual antibiotic use is an ideal setting for bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics.

The problem of untreatable “superbugs” may seem to be an unrelated problem that begins and ends in hospitals. In fact, livestock association MRSA is an established source of the disease. This issue is therefore inextricably linked with our farming systems and the treatment of our animals.

There are concerns, therefore, about the proposed mega pig farm in Foston and subsequent ones increasing the risk of new strains of multi-resistant bacteria emerging. The brunt of antibiotic use in farming is for pigs, at around 60%. The likelihood of new strains of bacteria passing from pigs to humans is thought to have been underestimated in the past. At least one strain of C. difficile, a superbug found in hospitals, has been found in British pigs. In addition, a new form of salmonella which is highly resistant to antibiotics is thought to have developed in pigs and has been recently described as “epidemic” by the European Food Safety Authority.

The consequences of ineffective antibiotics would be incredibly severe. To remedy one source of antibiotic resistance would be to bring in much stricter controls of antibiotics in farming. However, modern farming methods do not lend themselves to this kind of change and whilst British farming continues to move towards intensification on a large scale, the liberal use of antibiotics will not be stemmed. The cost of cheap meat, therefore, now lies beyond animal welfare and at the very heart of human health.