I was reading a blog today by an old friend, Dr. Nevil Speer, and it was an “aha” moment.

I have written many times blasting that oft-used number, that 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in this country are used in perfectly healthy animals raised for food.

In reality, those antibiotics include sick cows and pigs and companion animals like horses, cats and dogs. And also in reality, around 40 percent of those sold for use in animals are never used in human health — they are used to treat or prevent coccidiosis, an intestinal parasite (worm).

So the new “aha” is the revelation, by Nevil, that the CDC says 14,000 people die every year from Clostridium Difficile (C diff). That number is included in the often cited annual death rate of 23,000 in humans in this country from antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The CDC web page does include both of those numbers, and doing the math tells me 60 percent of human deaths from “antibiotic-resistant bacteria” are from C diff.

Why is this an “aha” moment?

Because C diff is not an antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and the CDC webpage explains this in detail. The agency also explains why they list it as one of their top 18 most serious antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in the U.S., even though it is not resistant.

(Kind of like the FDA’s annual antibiotic sales for animals title page that says “for food animals” and every chart has a footnote saying sales includes sales for companion animals.)

It can be treated with vancomycin or metronidazole, but it can be so severe that nothing will help.

You see, these bacteria only grow and kill when the healthy bacteria in our intestines are killed by high-dose, broad-spectrum antibiotics used to treat serious infections, like they used on my wife until they realized it was Legionnaire’s pneumonia.

This allows C diff to multiply unchecked and cause a membrane to grow on our intestinal lining making absorption of fluids impossible, leading to life-threatening diarrhea.

So like that 80 percent number, when some anti-animal agriculture person or group spreads fear, alarm and misinformation by saying we have to reduce antibiotic use in animal ag because 23,000 of us die every year from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, you can now stand up and say:

“STOP. Even if we banned all antibiotic sales to all animals for all reasons, 14,000 humans, 60 percent, would still die every year from C diff.”

So what are the other two threats the CDC considers Urgent, its top category?

1. Neisseria gonorrhea, not likely animal antibiotic use-related. At least I hope not.

2. Carbapenem-resistant enterococcus, an antibiotic not used in animal food production. Trust me, you do not want to get this one, and if you do you have most likely had an invasive procedure done in a health care facility. It does not come from eating undercooked chicken or ground beef.

I sincerely hope you can and will use this new information on a regular basis. The American public is forming its opinions from those who use figures without full disclosure with the obvious intent to mislead.

Liars STILL Figure, and Figures STILL Lie

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