Deadly superbugs found in waterways next to cruel factory farms

Public waterways next to factory farms in Canada, Spain, Thailand and the USA, contain antibiotic resistance genes that are dangerous to public health, according to research conducted by World Animal Protection.

The first multi-country investigation of its kind, ‘Silent superbug killers in a river near you’, found powerful Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) downstream from factory farms. Contaminated samples were also found upstream in areas with a high density of pig farms. This suggests factory farms could be discharging resistance genes and superbugs into the wider environment, as a result of pig waste being spread on fields and leeching into public waterways.

Animals on factory farms are cruelly caged, painfully mutilated and young animals are ripped from their mothers at a young age causing unthinkable suffering. Routine antibiotic use masks suffering on factory farms and prevents stressed animals from getting sick. ARGs are the building blocks of superbugs that emerge due to antibiotic overuse, causing contamination of our environment and food chain.

The superbug crisis poses a threat that could eclipse the COVID-19 pandemic. Already, more than 700,000 people die each year from superbugs where antibiotics are ineffective in treating infections. Up to 10 million people are expected to die from superbugs each year by 2050.

The World Animal Protection investigation found ARGs resistant to antibiotics including: third generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, colistin and macrolides, which are of most concern to the World Health Organisation (WHO). These antibiotics are the last line of defense for common infections like urinary tract infections or to keep patients alive with life threatening conditions like respiratory infections, when other antibiotics fail.

The WHO recommends that antibiotics should not be routinely used to prevent disease across groups of farm animals. Despite this, the practice remains widespread on cruel factory farms with as much as 75% of the world’s antibiotics used on farm animals.

 Jacqueline Mills, Head of Farming, at World Animal Protection, said:

“The factory farming industry is playing Russian roulette with people’s lives by routinely and carelessly using antibiotics, which is fueling the rise in dangerous superbugs.

“Pigs and the other 50 billion animals that are factory farmed each year suffer unthinkable cruelty, but there is a better way. We need to put an end to the worst abuses of animals in factory farms and stop using antibiotics across groups of animals to prevent sickness.

"We can see an end to cruel factory farming in our lifetime. No new factory farms should be built. Instead, the food industry needs to embrace a humane and sustainable future: predominantly plant-based diets, and remaining farm animals in genuinely high welfare systems where they can have good lives.”

World Animal Protection also interviewed people from local communities to gauge their experiences and firsthand accounts. Many complained about the farms but were too afraid to speak out.  

One smallholder farmer who wished to remain anonymous in Thailand said:

“Rice doesn’t grow the way it should when the farms release the water to the field. Some rice crops are damaged and some just die. Fish can’t also live in the pond, it’s actually the whole ecosystem in this area. I used to complain about this, but nothing has happened.”

Another resident, known as just Rosa, who lives in the Aragon region in Spain said: 
“Without water there is no future, and here we don’t have any water to spare. These villages will not survive if you cannot open the windows, or be outside or walk, if you cannot drink the tap water, or if we lose our great attraction, which is the landscapes and tranquility.

“The meat lobby is very powerful, and the profit of a few companies is taking precedence over public health.”

From January 2022, it will be illegal in the European Union to administer antibiotics across groups of farm animals to prevent disease, and it is important these laws are enforced, and other countries should follow suit. World Animal Protection is calling for governments to ban the routine use of antibiotics to prevent disease across groups of farm animals and to ensure that remaining factory farms meet FARMS animal welfare standards at a minimum.

“The factory farming industry is playing Russian roulette with people’s lives by routinely and carelessly using antibiotics, which is fueling the rise in dangerous superbugs. - Jacqueline Mills, Head of Farming at World Animal Protection