What's in Your Meat? FDA Reveals Antibiotic Use in Livestock

12-18-2010 @1:53PM Garett Flores said... Rob O.,

As an animal scientist trained at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, I can tell you that ruminants are in fact made to subsist on "lousy diets of grain". The change from a predominantly high roughage diet (grass, etc) to grain (corn, etc) causes a change in the type of microbes living in the ruminant stomach. There has to be enough time in order for the microbial population to "shift", or become numerous enough to properly breakdown the food you are giving them.

The same can be said of going from a grain fed diet (assuming they started out with this from a young age) to a grass fed diet. It needs to be a gradual change so that the microbes in their stomach (which are responsible for breaking down foods so that they can be absorbed in the intestinal tract) can undergo the shift to be able to deal with the change in the composition of their food.

It does not mean that grass is bad, or that grain is bad. It just means that we need to make adjustments to the diet that are gradual so that they don't get an upset stomach. We need to care about the animals, and treat them with respect.

Here is a similar scenario that you might be able to relate with.

Lets say that you haven't drank milk in over a year, and you decide to gulp down two glasses of milk one morning. Chances are, you are going to have a very upset stomach. You are going to be spending a lot of time in the bathroom; however, if you had just taken a sip that morning, and gradually increased the amount that you drink each day over the course of a week or so, then you more than likely would not have an upset stomach (this is assuming one does not have a milk allergy or is lactose intolerant).

The assertion that it requires a massive amount of antibiotics in order to effectively change a ruminants diet is 100% wrong for one simple reason. A high dose of antibiotics WILL KILL all of the microbes in a ruminants stomach. Without the microbes in the rumen, the ruminant will die (essentially starves to death). Your assertion does not make sense, and you are spreading misinformation.

Now, the sub-clinical use of antibiotics is a very real thing, but let me explain how it works. Antibiotics will be administered at critical times when a cow (for this example) is most at risk of getting sick. For example, low concentrations of antibiotics may be introduced into a feed ration after the cow has given birth because of the stress of this undertaking. This is done to prevent a problem before it happens.

Only if a cow is really sick and goes into a sick pen would it be given moderate doses of antibiotics, and these antibiotics are FDA approved. But you might ask yourself, what about these antibiotics makes them FDA approved? Well, the main reason they are FDA approved is because they have short half lives (this means that the antibiotics will be completely broken down in the body and cease to exist in ANY form in a very short amount of time).

Any cow that has been treated with antibiotics MUST be kept out of the food supply for an ample amount of time in order for the antibiotic to not be detectable. (The same goes for dairy cows and their milk. The guidelines are VERY strict. Be happy that you live in America! Your dairy food supply is very safe!).

Additionally, I agree that there is evidence that grass fed cattle can be "healthier" to eat. This is because the microbes in their stomach can take some roughages (grass for example), and instead of creating the fatty acid linoleic acid, the microbes can turn it into conjugated linoleic acid, which it turns out can be very good for us to eat. We haven't exactly figured out why this is the case, but people are working on it.
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2-02-2011 @2:02PM Sherre said... As small beef farmers, my husband & I grow a beef herd on a combination of pasture, dry hay, haylage & corn silage, and finally some "lousy grain". We purchase only grains without antibiotics, hormones or other additives. We have found over the years that this grows the best flavored, most tender meat. I've always felt that we grew a product far superior to "grocery store beef", but my confirmation of that (for me at least) came when my mother, who has ulcerative colitis and had stopped eating any beef because she reacted so strongly and negatively to it, started eating our beef with no negative reaction. She has tested the "clean beef" theory a few times over the past several years by eating other beef and reacting each time, then going back to our beef with no ill effects. Doesn't that make you wonder exactly what is in the beef? There is really no rocket science involved here. Anyone (almost) can do it, whether it's meats, veggies, eggs etc. Grow it yourself or buy from some else who grows it personally. Good foods, whole foods, local foods. That's the answer :)
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