Study finds antibiotic residues in poultry

Claiming that it found several antibiotic residues in chickens tested in Delhi-NCR region, an environment body today said "large-scale and indiscriminate" use of antibiotics in poultry industry might be "strongly linked" to growing antibiotic resistance in Indians.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) also sought implementation of a comprehensive set of regulations including banning of antibiotic use as growth promoters in the poultry industry as it puts lives of people at risk.
It said that 70 chicken samples from Delhi-NCR region were tested for six commonly used antibiotics during a recent study. While 40 per cent tested positive, residues of more than one antibiotic were found in 17 per cent samples.

"Indians are developing resistance to antibiotics - and hence falling prey to a host of otherwise curable ailments. Some of this resistance might be due to large-scale unregulated use of antibiotics in the poultry industry," CSE said.
The New Delhi-based research and advocacy think-tank said that antibiotics which are important to treat diseases in humans, like ciprofloxacin, are being rampantly used by the industry. This is leading to increased cases of antibiotic resistance in India.
"Antibiotics are no more restricted to humans nor limited to treating diseases. The poultry industry uses antibiotics as a growth promoter. Chickens are fed antibiotics so that they gain weight and grow faster," said Sunita Narain, Director General while releasing the study conducted by CSE's Pollution Monitoring Laboratory (PML).

The CSE said that India has no regulation on controlling antibiotic use in the poultry industry or to control sales of antibiotics to the industry while it has not set any limits for antibiotic residues in chicken.
Giving details, CSE said that PML tested 70 samples of chicken in Delhi and NCR out of which 36 samples were picked from Delhi, 12 from Noida, eight from Gurgaon and seven each from Faridabad and Ghaziabad.
Three tissues - muscle, liver and kidney - were tested for the presence of six antibiotics widely used in poultry - oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline and doxycycline (class tetracyclines), enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin (class fluoroquinolones) and neomycin, an aminoglycoside.