An HSI Report: Industrial Farm Animal Production and Livestock Associated MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus)

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of bacterial infection and is increasingly found to be resistant to antibiotic therapy. A newly described type of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus carried by farm animals, Livestock Associated MRSA (LA-MRSA), is now causing infections in humans with and without direct livestock contact. A reduction in the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in feed would likely reduce the capacity of industrial animal agriculture to continue to create, disseminate, and perpetuate a large reservoir of LA-MRSA on a global scale, but more fundamental changes in the way animals are raised for food may be necessary forestall a post-antibiotic age

An HSI Fact Sheet: The Impact of Animal Agriculture on the Environment and Climate Change in India: A Focus on Methane

Animal agriculture inefficiently consumes natural resources, contributes to deforestation, and produces immense quantities of animal waste, threatening water and air quality and contributing to climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimated in 2006 that animal agriculture was responsible for 18% of global, anthropogenic, or human-induced, greenhouse gas emissions and was ―by far the single largest anthropogenic user of land. Climate change poses significant challenges to India‘s agricultural sector, which is already facing increased competition for land and water

An HSI Report: The Public Health Implications of Intensive Farm Animal Production in South Asia

Intensive farm animal production (IFAP) is being increasingly implemented to meet the rising demand for animal source foods in South Asia. The siting of IFAP facilities in urban or peri-urban areas leads to large proximate animal populations, increasing human exposure to pollutants and pathogens. Improperly managed wastes from IFAP facilities and abattoirs can contaminate water with excess nutrients, pathogens, veterinary pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, heavy metals, and hormones, and can release ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, volatile organic compounds, bioaerosols, and particulate matter into the air compartment. The unregulated nature of IFAP in South Asia creates a risk for zoonotic transmission, including anthrax, brucellosis, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, cysticercosis, E. coli, Giardia, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, leptospirosis, Salmonella and Nipah Virus. Recommendations to mediate adverse human health consequences include improved veterinary care, prohibition of confinement facilities that facilitate pathogen transmission and evolution, prohibition of nontherapeutic use of antibiotics, implementation of proper management of animal wastes, zoning for IFAP and abattoir facilities, and surveillance of slaughtering facilities to limit carcass contamination and reduce the burden of foodborne disease in South Asia

An HSI Report: Human Health Implications of Intensive Poultry Production and Avian Influenza

The high stocking density, stress, unhygienic conditions, lack of sunlight, and breeding practices typical of industrial poultry and egg production systems may facilitate the emergence and spread of diseases, including highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses with public health implications such as H5N1

HSI Fact Sheet: The Impact of Animal Agriculture on the Environment and Climate Change in Brazil

The intensification of farm animal production in industrialized agricultural systems, or factory farms, compromises animal welfare and degrades the environment. Animal agriculture inefficiently consumes natural resources, contributes to deforestation, and produces immense quantities of animal waste, threatening water and air quality and contributing to climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimated in 2006 that animal agriculture was responsible for 18% of global, anthropogenic, or human-induced, greenhouse gas emissions and was ―by far the single largest anthropogenic user of land

An HSI Fact Sheet: Avian Influenza in India

Avian influenza (AI), commonly known as bird flu, typically causes little or no harm to its wild waterfowl hosts. In 2003-2004, however, nine Asian countries reported unprecedented outbreaks of high-mortality AI in domestic poultry. This viral lineage, subtype H5N1, has spread to over 60 countries, and is considered endemic in at least four. In India, H5N1 outbreaks were first recorded in 2006, and have continued each year since, reaching a total of 86 by 2012. Millions of India’s chickens and ducks have been culled in efforts to contain and eliminate the virus. India has declared itself free of AI a number of times since 2006—but the virus has continued to resurface. From 2003 to 2011, 576 cases of human H5N1 infection were reported, with two-thirds in east and southeast Asia. Of those infected, only 41% survived. Though there have yet been no direct bird-to-human cases reported in India, the greatest concern is that a virus such as H5N1 could mutate to acquire easy human transmissibility (perhaps by combining with swine-origin H1N1). In 2009 H1N1 spread rapidly throughout India in 2-3 months infecting an estimated excess of 10 million people. Imagine if the mortality rate was 60%, like H5N1, instead of 0.02%? The emergence of such high-pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) viruses is likely facilitated by aspects of industrial poultry and egg production. Industry trade journal World Poultry listed some factors that make intensive poultry facilities such “ideal” “breeding grounds for disease”9: “inadequate ventilation, high stocking density, poor litter conditions, poor hygiene, high ammonia level, concurrent diseases and secondary infections.” These conditions not only diminish animal welfare, but may help produce a pathogen with pandemic potential

An HSI Report: Food Safety and Cage Egg Production

Governments have begun legislating against cage egg production and a growing number of major food retailers, restaurant chains, and foodservice providers worldwide are switching to cage-free eggs. Extensive scientific evidence strongly suggests this trend will improve food safety. All fifteen scientific studies published in the last five years comparing Salmonella contamination between caged and cage-free operations found that those confining hens in cages had higher rates of Salmonella, a leading cause of food poisoning worldwide. This has led prominent consumer advocacy organizations, such as the Center for Food Safety, to oppose the use of cages to confine egg-laying hens

An HSI Report: The Impact of Animal Agriculture on Global Warming and Climate Change

The farm animal production sector is the single largest anthropogenic user of land, contributing to soil degradation, dwindling water supplies, and air pollution. The breadth of this sector‘s impacts has been largely underappreciated. Meat, egg, and milk production are not narrowly focused on the rearing and slaughtering of farm animals. The animal agriculture sector also encompasses feed grain production which requires substantial water, energy, and chemical inputs, as well as energy expenditures to transport feed, live animals, and animal products. All of this comes at a substantial cost to the environment. One of animal agriculture‘s greatest environmental impacts is its contribution to global warming and climate change. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the animal agriculture sector is responsible for approximately 18%, or nearly one-fifth, of human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In nearly every step of meat, egg, and milk production, climate-changing gases are released into the atmosphere, potentially disrupting weather, temperature, and ecosystem health. Mitigating this serious problem requires immediate and far-reaching changes in current animal agriculture practices and consumption patterns