Unpalatable truths: Commitment to eating meat is associated with strategic ignorance of food-animal minds

Animal minds are of central importance to debates about their rights and welfare. Remaining ignorant of evidence that animals have minds is therefore likely to facilitate their mistreatment. Studying samples of adults and students from the UK and US we found that, consistent with motivational perspectives on meat consumption, those who were more (vs. less) committed to eating meat were more motivated to avoid exposure to information about food-animals’ sentience (Studies 1), showed less interest in exposure to articles about intelligent food animals (Studies 2a and 2b), and were quicker to terminate exposure to internet pop-ups containing information about food-animals’ minds (Studies 3a and 3b). At the same time, those who were more (vs. less) committed to eating meat approached information about companion-animals’ minds (Studies 2a-3b) and unintelligent food animals (Studies 2a and 2b) in largely the same ways. The findings demonstrate that, within the UK and US, the desire to eat meat is associated with strategies to avoid information that is likely to challenge meat consumption.

High Prevalence of Vancomycin Non-Susceptible and Multi-Drug Resistant Enterococci in Farmed Animals and Fresh Retail Meats in Bangladesh

The emergence of antimicrobial resistant Enterococcus spp., a leading cause of untreatable nosocomial infection, in food animals and dissemination to humans is a public health concern. The study was conducted to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance, and virulence characteristics of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium in food animals and meats in Bangladesh. Enterococcus spp., were confirmed using sodA gene specific PCR, and antimicrobial resistance and virulence properties were characterized by PCR. Enterococcus spp. were recovered from 57% of the collected samples (n=201/352). Farm samples yielded significantly higher (p≤0.05) prevalence (62%) compared to retail meat samples (41%) and E. faecalis (52%) was most frequently isolated species. High proportions of isolates exhibited resistance to tetracycline (74%), erythromycin (65%) and ciprofloxacin (34%). Fifty-one isolates were vancomycin non-susceptible enterococci (VNSE), of which forty-seven were MDR and 20 were linezolid resistant, a last line drug for VNSE. Virulence factors such as gelatinase (gelE), aggregation factor (asa1) and sex pheromone (cpd) were detected along with vancomycin resistance gene (vanA, vanB and vanC2/C3) in VNSE isolates. The high prevalence of MDR enterococci in food animals and retail meats may lead to infection in consumers with concomitant reduced therapeutic options available for treatment.

Assessment of antimicrobial consumption in food animals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Monitoring antimicrobial use in food-producing animals is one of the global strategies to tackle antimicrobial resistance. The purpose of the present study is to generate quantitative information on antimicrobial use pattern in Dar es Salaam, which will be used as an approach for future monitoring and surveillance of antimicrobial quantities consumed in food animals. A 3 years (2016-2018) retrospective survey of antimicrobial usage in food-producing animals in three selected districts of Dar es Salaam city, Eastern Tanzania was conducted. Data on antimicrobial quantities consumed was obtained from five purposively selected licensed veterinary pharmaceutical sales/outlet establishments in the study area, based on keeping detailed sales records for the study period. Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS version 20. Animal population data were from FAO-Stat database used to extrapolate the quantity consumed in food animals to the entire population during the study period in Tanzania. The antimicrobials were analysed based on class, importance for human medicine and route of administration. The study revealed that 178.4 tonnes of antimicrobials (by weight of active ingredients) were consumed during the 3 years period, with an average of 59.5 ± 3.8 tonnes/year. The commonly consumed antimicrobials were tetracycline (44.4%), sulphonamides (20.3%), aminoglycosides (10.3%) and beta-lactams (7.4%). In relation to veterinary antimicrobial use importance to human medicine, 34.4% were of critically important antimicrobials; 4.1% reserve and 51% watch group according to AWaRe categorization of WHO. Most of the antimicrobials were administered orally. Overall, a mean of 7.44 ± 0.81 mg/PCU (population correction unit) was consumed by food-producing animals during the 3 years period. This finding can help improve monitoring and control of veterinary antimicrobial use in Dar es Salaam in particular and Tanzania in general by preserving the efficacy of antimicrobials for future animal and human generations.

Multidrug Resistance Dynamics in Salmonella in Food Animals in the United States: An Analysis of Genomes from Public Databases

Next-generation sequencing has led to an exponential increase in the number of genomes deposited in public repositories. This growing volume of information presents opportunities to track the prevalence of genes conferring antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a growing threat to the health of humans and animals.

Positive Association between the Use of Quinolones in Food Animals and the Prevalence of Fluoroquinolone Resistance in E. coli and K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii and P. aeruginosa: A Global Ecological Analysis

(1) Background: It is unclear what underpins the large global variations in the prevalence of fluoroquinolone resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. We tested the hypothesis that different intensities in the use of quinolones for food-animals play a role. (2) Methods: We used Spearman’s correlation to assess if the country-level prevalence of fluoroquinolone resistance in human infections with Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was correlated with the use of quinolones for food producing animals. Linear regression was used to assess the relative contributions of country-level quinolone consumption for food-animals and humans on fluoroquinolone resistance in these 4 species. (3) Results: The prevalence of fluoroquinolone resistance in each species was positively associated with quinolone use for food-producing animals (E. coli [ρ = 0.55; p < 0.001], K. pneumoniae [ρ = 0.58; p < 0.001]; A. baumanii [ρ = 0.54; p = 0.004]; P. aeruginosa [ρ = 0.48; p = 0.008]). Linear regression revealed that both quinolone consumption in humans and food animals were independently associated with fluoroquinolone resistance in E. coli and A. baumanii. (4) Conclusions: Besides the prudent use of quinolones in humans, reducing quinolone use in food-producing animals may help retard the spread of fluoroquinolone resistance in various Gram-negative bacterial species.