020550 Pilgrim's Pride Silent on Poultry Antibiotic Use

Washington - For years chicken producers have laced the feed and water given to chickens with huge amounts of antibiotics, often for the sole purpose of speeding the animals' growth. But recent months have seen a dramatic change in the industry as several of the nation's largest chicken producers have announced they have reduced antibiotic use in healthy chickens. Unfortunately, the third largest U.S. chicken producer, Pilgrim's Pride, headquartered in Pittsburg, Texas, has made no statements about the antibiotic use, which threatens to undermine the efficacy of antibiotics in human medicine.

"Perdue and other top chicken producers have proven that it's possible to maintain a healthy bottom-line while protecting human health," said Michael Khoo, an antibiotics expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). "Pilgrim's Pride should stop playing chicken with antibiotics and start following the leaders in the chicken industry."

UCS estimates that 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are fed to chickens, pigs and cows for nontherapeutic purposes like growth promotion. The overuse of antibiotics in poultry production encourages disease-causing bacteria that can resist drug treatment. The American Medical Association has called for an end to the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in animal farming.

"Smaller producers pioneered the move away from antibiotics, but this is the first time major chicken producers have acknowledged the antibiotic resistance problem," Khoo said.

Top 10 U.S. chicken producers Perdue, ConAgra, Wayne Farms and Foster Farms, who produce a combined 142.23 million pounds of chicken per week, have moved to stop feeding medically important antibiotics to healthy chickens. A spokesman for Perdue has gone on-record saying that the company quit feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens so that, "we are in no way, shape or form contributing to antibiotic resistance in humans." Pilgrim's Pride, which produces 56.7 million pounds of chicken per week has shown no sign of making a similar move.

"As long as poultry companies continue to squander invaluable antibiotics, human diseases will continue to develop resistance to drug treatments," Khoo said.

Formed in 1969, the UCS is a nonprofit partnership of scientists and citizens combining rigorous scientific analysis, innovative policy development and effective citizen advocacy to achieve practical environmental solutions.

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