Tyson Foods Injects Chickens with Antibiotics Before They Hatch to Claim “Raised Without Antibiotics”
November 9th, 2008Via: Natural News:
Tyson Foods, the world’s largest meat processor and the second largest chicken producer in the United States, has admitted that it injects its chickens with antibiotics before they hatch, but labels them as raised without antibiotics anyway. In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) told Tyson to stop using the antibiotic-free label. The company has sued over its right to keep using it.
The controversy over Tyson’s antibiotic-free label began in summer 2007, when the company began a massive advertising campaign to tout its chicken as “raised without antibiotics.” Already, Tyson has spent tens of millions of dollars this year to date in continuing this campaign.
Poultry farmers regularly treat chickens and other birds with antibiotics to prevent the development of intestinal infections that might reduce the weight (and profitability) of the birds. Yet scientists have become increasingly concerned that the routine use of antibiotics in animal agriculture may accelerate the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could lead to a pandemic or other health crisis.
After Tyson began labeling its chicken antibiotic-free, the USDA warned the company that such labels were not truthful, because Tyson regularly treats its birds’ feed with bacteria-killing ionophores. Tyson argued that ionophores are antimicrobials rather than antibiotics, but the USDA reiterated its policy that “ionophores are antibiotics.”
Because ionophores are not used to treat human disease, however, the poultry company suggested a compromise, accepted by the USDA in December, whereby Tyson would use a label reading “raised without antibiotics that impact antibiotic resistance in humans.”
Tyson’s competitors Perdue Farms Inc., Sanderson Farms Inc. and Foster Farms sued, under the banner of the Truthful Labeling Coalition. In May 2008, a federal judge ruled in their favor and told Tyson to stop using the label.
Not long after, on June 3, USDA inspectors discovered that in addition to using ionophores, Tyson was regularly injecting its chicken eggs with gentamicin, an antibiotic that has been used for more than 30 years in the United States to treat urinary tract and blood infections. The drug is also stockpiled by the federal government as a treatment for biological agents such as plague.
“In contrast to information presented by Tyson Foods Inc., [inspectors] found that they routinely used the antibiotic gentamicin to prevent illness and death in chicks, which raises public health concerns,” said USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety Richard Raymond.
“The use of this particular antibiotic was not disclosed to us,” said USDA spokesperson Amanda Eamich.
The agency told Tyson that based on the new discovery, it would no longer consider the antibiotic-free label “truthful and accurate.” It gave the company 15 days to remove the label from all its products, although that deadline was eventually extended to July 9.
But Tyson objected again, claiming that because the antibiotics are injected two to three days before the chickens hatched, the birds can truthfully be said to be “raised without antibiotics.” USDA rules on how to label the raising of birds do not address anything that happens before the second day of life, the company said.
Tyson also defended the “in ovo” injection of antibiotics as standard industry practice.
“The vast majority of the industry does exactly the same thing,” Tyson Vice President Archie Schaffer said.
But Hansen noted that it takes gentamicin several weeks to dissipate, so the drugs are still in the birds’ bodies after they hatch.
“The labels were clearly false and misleading,” he said.
Tyson agreed to voluntarily withdraw its “raised without antibiotics labels,” citing “uncertainty and controversy over product labeling regulations.” It then filed a lawsuit against the USDA, claiming that the agency had improperly changed the definition of “raised without antibiotics” to include the treatment of eggs.
Tyson is asking to have the regulation to be thrown out.
Considering the conditions in which factory-farmed food-animals are raised, anti-biotics are a necessity. And of course, because antibiotics kill off the intestinal flora that keep candida albicans yeast cells in check, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if this were a contributing factor to the increasing number of people developing candidiasis symptoms such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, otherwise inexplicable deep fatigue, and mysterious rashes that nothing from the doctor can banish permanently.
Loveandlight, the part about candida causing deep fatigue makes me wonder if this isn’t my problem.
My experience is that eating a lot of yogurt resolves yeast infections. Maybe I’ll give this a try.
We don’t eat a lot of meat–but we do eat a chicken now and then.
@sharon:
Diet is important with candida, but eating meat isn’t a major trigger of symptoms. I just think that the antibiotics in factory-farmed food-animals could just be one of several factors in nudging the intestinal floral balance towards that critical tipping point where candida albicans becomes dominant. The two big things that get axed on the candida diet are refined sugar and wheat products. I don’t follow the strict candida diet myself because I have found a very helpful nutritional supplement that keeps it under control, but I try to avoid refined sugar so that I’m not undermining the effects of the supplement.
In fact, one effective if somewhat brutal way to try and see if candidiasis is your problem is to observe if your symptoms become worse after a major sugary indulgence. Here’s another test according to alternative medicine: When you get up in the morning, before eating or drinking anything, work up some saliva in your mouth and then spit into a clear glass of water. If weird, cloudy stringy things start extending down into the water in the glass, you might have candida issues.
One interesting thing I’ve noticed with my candida fatigue issue is that it seems to be much more of a problem during the colder, darker half of the year than the warmer lighter half.
…it seems to be much more of a problem during the colder, darker half of the year than the warmer lighter half.
Vitamin D:
http://www.google.com/search?q=candida+vitamin+d&ie=UTF-8
Thanks, Kevin. There’s Vitamin D3 (100% of RDA) in the daily multivitamin I take. I’m sure my fatigue problems would be worse were it not for the vitamin and mineral and oil (fish and coconut) supplements I take.
Loveandlight, I will try the “spitting in a glass of water” method. Use of refined sugar is rather rare around here. I’m not even sure I have any on hand. But we do use honey and brown sugar, which will obviously grow yeast–as any old-school baker who “proofs” her yeast can tell you. (I’m guilty of nibbling at raw bread dough.)
I don’t think I could give up wheat products. A gal’s gotta bake. I’d lose my will to live.
I’m inclined to think that yogurt might work for a systemic yeast infection–which would logically have its source in the gut. I do know that it works for the commonplace “female complaint” type of yeast infection.
My daughter got one of these after a course of antibiotics. I advised her to eat yogurt. (She felt topical application to the afflicted area was a little over-the-top, though the cure would probably be quicker.)
She asked me if a doctor could give her something that would work. I replied, “Yeah, you could see a doctor and get something that would work. Or you could just eat yogurt.” Eating yogurt worked after a few days.
Those of us in the older generation (you’re young enough to be my daughter) will remember that the old recipes for baking yeast bread were adamant about scalding any milk that was added to the dough. That’s because the bacteria in unpasteurized milk will kill the yeast. Your bread won’t rise.
If you can get unpasteurized milk, I would also suggest going that route. (I can’t get it around here–at least, no any more.)
My guess is that yeast infections were unknown before antibiotics and pasteurization.
If I’m not mistaken, yogurt as a cure for yeast infections is rather widely known.