Am I concerned about the use of antibiotics in animals raised for food and how that practice might affect my health? You bet I am, and I have said so many times in my blogs and in my speeches on the subject.

But I am also concerned, and to a greater degree, about the inappropriate use of antibiotics in companion animals and in human medicine.

But I am just one person, and I feel like I am speaking in a wilderness.

When a revered institution such as The Johns Hopkins University lends its letter head to the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for a Livable Future, Department of Environmental Health, you have to wonder how much clout Food (Safety) Fight might have.

In a letter using the letter head with all the above descriptors not one, but seven, faculty members at the Center for a Livable Future wrote a letter dated Sept. 9, 2015, to Katherine Nunez of the Northampton County Administration in Virginia.

The letter began with a “Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Johns Hopkins University.”

Trust me, the views that follow are mine and mine alone and I will not be using someone else’s letter head to imply importance to those views.

The letter was all about the implied dangers to human health from “industrial broiler production.”

The letter had some interesting facts about the inventory of broilers in Northampton and surrounding counties in Virginia and Maryland, but that is pretty much where the facts ended and the innuendos and lies began.

There was the boiler plate claim that humans will suffer from asthma, bronchitis, etc. from air pollution caused by the chicken farms.

Of course, the letter came from an institution in Baltimore, Md., where I assume respiratory illnesses are never linked to car fumes, cigarette smoke or smog.

It also claimed “human exposure to infectious agents can occur through ... drinking contaminated water.” I guess that is assuming rural Virginia and Maryland do not filter their drinking water supply, nor treat it with chemicals to assure that it is safe to drink and not contaminated from ANY source.

And of course there is the often repeated, inaccurate and misleading statement that “an estimated 80 percent of antibiotics sold for human and animal uses in the U.S. are sold for use in food-producing animals.”

This might be the 1,000th time I have pointed out that the 80 percent number is based on kilogram weight, not doses, and that it includes companion animals like horses, cats and dogs.

In addition, that number includes ionophores and the Not Individually Listed antibiotics that are never used in human medicine and make up about 40 percent of that number.

I assume that at least one of the seven authors knows these facts, so they are either lying or spreading misleading information. Shame on them for doing so.

They go on to spread fear that Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA) is somehow linked to chickens.

In the letter the authors state that workers in broiler operations are exposed to MRSA and have a higher colonization rate with MRSA, citing a Dutch study showing 5.6 percent of workers are colonized, compared to 0.01 percent of the general population.

That last number is ridiculously low if you look at the American population.

In a study of all patients admitted to four U.S. hospitals, 3.4 percent were colonized with MRSA when tested upon admission. That is a number that repeatedly shows up in multiple studies of the general population.

In health care workers that colonization rate is 12.7 percent.

Exposure equals risk. Period.

Colonization does not imply health risk.

Community acquired MRSA infections are usually no more than a pimple, cellulitis or a small abcess treated by lancing.

Hospital acquired MRSA is a killer and is not linked to chicken farms.

The letter goes on and on, but my editors will not allow me to do so and I must end now, but if anyone wants to see the letter in its entirety just let me know.

When Will the Lies and Innuendos About Antibiotics Stop?

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