Antibiotic Residues: Emerging Food Safety and Public Health Concern

The ongoing emergence of antibiotic residues in animal food products is a public health issue of great concern. Antibiotics are widely used both therapeutically and as growth promoters in animal farms. Antibiotics are used for improving growth performance in broilers and fatteners. They may produce improved growth rate due to thinning of mucous membrane of the gut and facilitates better absorption. They alter gut motility to enhance better assimilation. They produce favourable conditions to beneficial microbes in the gut of animal by destroying harmful bacteria and partitioning proteins to muscle accretion by suppressing monokines. Antibiotics also favour growth by decreasing degree of activity of the immune system, reduced waste of nutrients and reduce toxin formation. In most of the cases only young growing animals and poultry are responsive to antibiotic mediated growth promotion. Indiscriminating therapeutic use of antibiotics such as in cases of pyrexia, inflammation, treatment of wounds and viral diseases have wide residual effects on edible tissues. Animals and poultry are receiving sub therapeutic levels of antibiotics to prevent possible infection. Antimicrobials are used either directly or indirectly during the production, processing and storage of milk and milk products. FDA prohibits indiscriminate use of nitrofurazone, sulphonamides, chloramphenicol, furazolidone and flouroquinolones in milk producing animals.