190,000 ducks destroyed at six Dutch farms after bird flu outbreak

Some 190,000 ducks were destroyed on Saturday at six farms in the Netherlands following an avian flu outbreak, the country’s first cull in response to an epidemic sweeping northern Europe.

Outbreaks of avian flu, primarily the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain, have been reported in Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden over the past week.

Dutch authorities did not say what strain of the virus had been discovered at a poultry farm in the village of Biddinghuizen, 70km (43 miles) east of Amsterdam.

The cull was implemented at four other sites owned by the same company and at a sixth farm less than a kilometre from the site of the confirmed outbreak.

Officials said they were checking for bird flu at farms within three kilometres of the original site and imposed a ban on transporting poultry products within a 10km radius.

The world’s second largest agricultural exporter, the Netherlands has more than 100 million hens, pigs, cows and sheep on high-intensity farms. The density makes the animals more vulnerable to disease outbreaks.

Since 1997, 40 million hens, cows, goats, pigs and sheep have been slaughtered to contain outbreaks including swine flu, foot-and-mouth disease and BSE.

190,000 ducks destroyed at six Dutch farms after bird flu outbreak

Use of strongest antibiotics rises to record levels on European farms

Use of some of the strongest antibiotics available to treat life-threatening infections has risen to record levels on European farms, new data shows.

The report reinforces concerns about the overuse of antibiotics on farms, following revelations from the Guardian of the presence of the superbug MRSA in UK-produced meat, in imported meat for sale in UK supermarkets, and on British farms.

According to the data from the European Medicines Agency, medicines classified as “critically important in human medicine” by the World Health Organisation appear to be in frequent use on farm animals across the major countries of the EU, including the UK. This comes in spite of WHO advice that, because of their importance, these drugs should be used only in the most extreme cases, if at all, in treating animals.

The latest report from the EMA collates data from member states on the sales of antibiotics for veterinary purposes in 2014, and shows that antibiotic use on farms fell by about 2% on the previous year overall, and by as much as 12% in many countries. But this disguises the rise in the use of the strongest medicines, such as colistin, which is a last resort for life-threatening human illness.

The percentage of antibiotics sales made up by the most potent antibiotics remained steady or in some cases increased slightly, indicating an increase in the amount of so-called critically important antibiotics used.

For instance, sales of fluoroquinolones – the newest versions of which are used to treat life-threatening illnesses including pneumonia and Legionnaire’s disease – stood at 141 tonnes across the countries surveyed in 2013, and rose to 172 tonnes in 2014. Sales of macrolides, also classed as critically important to human health, rose from 59 to 67 tonnes in the same period. This shows that efforts to prevent the drugs most crucial for human health from being used in farming are failing.

Experts are increasingly concerned by growing evidence that the overuse of antibiotics on farms – which in the EU account for three times the quantity of antibiotics dispensed to the human population – is endangering human health by fostering the development of bacteria resistant to even the strongest medicines.

Cóilín Nunan, of the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, which comprises several NGOs concerned with animal and human health, said: “The shocking overuse of farm antibiotics shown [in the report] is a result of the continued failure by most countries to ban routine preventative mass medication in intensive farming.

“Spain now uses 100 times more antibiotics per unit of livestock than Norway, 80 times more than Iceland and 35 times more than Sweden. The main reason for the difference is that Spain, like most of Europe, allows routine mass medication, whereas the Nordic countries do not. The increased use of last-resort and critically important antibiotics is particularly alarming and confirms that reliance on voluntary and softly-softly approaches is not working.”

The Guardian has exposed new evidence of the superbug MRSA present in meat produced in the UK and on sale in UK supermarkets. When present in food, the bug can be killed by cooking, but lapses in hygiene can result in human infection. It can be contracted from infected farm animals, so the finding that UK farms are becoming a reservoir for the disease shows there is a danger of it spreading more widely in Britain.

Antibiotic resistance has been called a threatened “apocalypse” by the UK’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies. She has warned that in less than two decades operations now regarded as simple, such as hip replacements, could become dangerous to patients because of the risk they could contract untreatable infections. The overuse of antibiotics has been a key factor in the rise of resistant bacteria.

The government’s review of the situation, conducted by Lord O’Neill and published last year, found that farms were a potential source of increasing resistance. Germs that acquire immunity to strong antibiotics in animals can spread to humans.

Routine use of antibiotics on animals – which is frequently practised across the world as a method of promoting their growth – is supposed to be banned within the EU.

However, the new data from EMA showed that farmers and vets are over-using strong antibiotics, campaigners told the Guardian. The O’Neill review advised that the UK and other countries should aim to use no more than 50mg of antibiotic per kilogramme of livestock, but the data shows that the average use across the EU is three times higher at 152mg per kg, according to the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics.

Use of strongest antibiotics rises to record levels on European farms

AMA gives wind farms clean bill of health and attacks "misinformation"

The Australian Healthcare Association has dismissed any website link between bad health and wind farms, stating that the spreading of “health scares and misinformation” could be heightening neighborhood anxiousness, possibly leading to sickness.

Australia’s peak entire body for medical doctors explained domestic and international proof “does not support” the theory that infrasound or minimal frequency sound created by wind farms triggers adverse health results in men and women residing near them.

“Individuals residing in the vicinity of wind farms who do knowledge adverse wellness or wellbeing, may do so as a consequence of their heightened anxiousness or negative perceptions with regards to wind farm developments in their area,” said the AMA’s place statement.

“The reporting of ‘health scares’ and misinformation with regards to wind farm developments may possibly contribute to heightened anxiousness and local community division, and above-rigorous regulation of these developments by state governments.”

The AMA advised that the regulation of wind farms need to be “guided entirely” by the proof of their impacts.

The federal government is hunting to press ahead with an “independent review” of wind farms. The Victorian government, which has banned the establishment of wind farms within 2km of any dwelling, has presented $ 100,000 in the direction of the examine.

Maurice Newman, who is Tony Abbott’s top company adviser, has been a higher-profile critic of wind farms, calling them a “danger to human health” and threatening to sue a farmer for erecting wind turbines upon a home adjacent to Newman’s.

Despite the objections of Newman, and anti-wind groups this kind of as the Waubra Foundation, several studies into wind farms have discovered they there is no clear website link to ill results in humans.

Dozens of symptoms have been attributed to wind farms by complainants, like accelerated ageing, back discomfort, bowel cancer and diarrhoea. Wind farms have also been blamed for killing emus and for missing eyeballs in newborn calves.

In February, a overview of proof by the National Well being and Health care Study Council discovered there was no trustworthy evidence of health troubles triggered by wind farms.

Professor Geoffrey Dobb, vice president of the AMA, said: “The infrasound and lower frequency sound created by modern day wind farms in Australia is effectively beneath the degree where acknowledged overall health effects take place.

“And there is no accepted physiological mechanism where sub-audible infrasound could cause well being effects.

“The reporting of supposed ‘health scares’ or the spreading of misinformation about wind farm developments might contribute to heightened nervousness.

“Community consultation and engagement at the start of the approach is crucial to minimise misinformation, anxiousness, and community division.”

AMA gives wind farms clean bill of health and attacks "misinformation"