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Dr. Denis Krause
- University of Manitoba |
| Farmscape for April 22, 2004 (Episode 1499)
A researcher with the University of Manitoba says, if Canada intends to expand its exports of pork, the elimination of antibiotics from swine diets is inevitable.
Over the past few decades the inclusion of antibiotics in swine diets, usually in nursery rations, to promote faster growth has become common.
Gastrointestinal Microbiologist Dr. Denis Krause says the concern is that this subtherapeutic use, is contributing directly or indirectly to antibiotic resistance in humans.
He says this is a trend we have been seeing over the past five to ten years and there seems to be some correlation with the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in animal diets.
Clip-Dr. Denis Krause-University of Manitoba
I think public perception is going to drive that whole issue and I think it's a given that antibiotics are going to be coming out of diets.
I think the reason for that is that there's a general perception within the public and particularly regulatory agents that we've got to be very very sure that what we're doing to our animals is safe, not only for the animals but also for human health and the environment.
If we look at problems in the animal industries of late, for example foot and mouth disease, BSE and more recently avian flu, I think anything that looks as if it might be a problem and antibiotics certainly falls within that category, we in the livestock industry are really going to have to address that.
I think the future is that we're going to have to remove antibiotics from swine diets.
How soon that's going to happen I can't tell you but certainly, if Canada is going to be expecting to increase its export of pork worldwide, I think there's going to be a requirement to remove antibiotics from diets virtually completely.
Dr. Krause says we need to look very seriously at alternatives to antibiotics as growth promoting agents but most important is to look at taking antibiotics out of swine diets.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council |
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| Keywords: environment |
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© Wonderworks Canada
2004 |
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