such is the power of the livestock lobby. This whole business of antibiotic resistance isn’t scientific naval gazing but seriously life threatening. Bacteria are mutating into slightly different forms all the time as part of their natural drive for survival. Most mutations aren’t viable and die off. When bacteria encounter an enemy which threatens them, be it other bacteria or antibiotics, these mutations come into their own and some of them will have resistance to the threat. These are the survivors who go on to reproduce and pass on that resistance. They might be single cell creatures but


they aren’t stupid and can pass this resistance on to other, unrelated, bacteria. The result can be that the particular drug doesn’t work any more. Even worse, the bacteria can become resistant to several antibiotics, becoming multi-drug resistant. It follows that the more often and more generously antibiotics are used, the more is to happen and is the reason why Swann advocated slashing their use and using different drugs for humans and animals. He was ignored and that’s why we now keep reading dire warnings such as ‘staring into the abyss’, ‘an end to invasive surgery’, ‘a return to pre-war levels of infectious diseases.’ For me, this has a powerful resonance


as, just post war and before antibiotics were widely available for humans, I developed a raging temperature and started coughing up blood. My family talked in hushed tones and fear was etched into their faces. I knew it was serious as I was moved from a shared bedroom upstairs into the downstairs front room, normally used only for Christmases and funerals. I could just make out a conversation between my parents as they agonised over who they could borrow money from to send me to Switzerland and its clean, mountain air which might be beneficial. Their dread fear, of


course, was that I had TB – a virtual death sentence. We knew the likely outcome because we had drawn our front blinds on too many occasions and stood in respect on the Ronuk-red doorstep, heads bowed, as hearses, with their


tearful retinues following behind, carried local victims of ‘the consumption’ to Bethel Mission at the end of our street for some last, comforting words. In fact it turned out to be pneumonia but


that was no doddle either for a little kid as it, too, is a killer for which antibiotics would now be prescribed. In their absence I quaffed one of their precursors – a sticky, pink M&B sulfonamide, designed to bring the fever quickly to a pitch in an act of make-or-break. Fortunately, it was make. Be in no doubt, we are headed back to


these days at a pace. Already TB has reclaimed its role as a massive global killer with several drug-resistant strains having appeared. In the UK, TB’s resurgence in humans is still in its infancy, with just one death per 100,000 of the population – 600 deaths annually. But the global average is 15 per 100,000. If we ever hit that average the UK death toll would be 9,000. It is the main cause of death for people with HIV but their deaths are excluded from the general statistics. There is absolutely no mystery as to how


this came about. The starting point was post-war panic by the government that we had to increase our food security in case we were ever again blockaded. Newly discovered antibiotics were dispensed like sweeties and so began a process of herding farmed animals out of the fields and into dark, dank, often windowless sheds. It was not only approved by government but encouraged. Without antibiotics it would have been


impossible to cram together hundreds and thousands of genetically similar animals as diseases would have run through them faster than a rumour. And so, with the generosity of a sailor on shore leave, antibiotics were dispensed when disease came calling (therapeutic); they were dispensed in case it came calling (prophylactic); and having made the discovery that antibiotics could make animals grow faster, they were then dispensed for that reason, too (growth promoting). And so it has gone on. When resistant superbugs started to


appear, as Swann had feared they would, the EU banned growth-promoting antibiotics. Hooray, you might say. Our farmers aren’t that easily defeated and they discovered that using the other types of antibiotics in their stead had precisely the same effect and so the graph of antibiotic use showed barely a downward blip. Let’s forget for a moment the insanity of


trying to improve food output by encouraging the most outrageously inefficient type of farming – animals. Let’s forget everyone’s ignoring of the science that warned that human life was seriously at threat from antibiotic resistance. What I want to know is where were the vets in


all this? Where were they when sows were forced


into obscene crates to spend their entire lives; and where were they in the campaign to release them? Where were they when dairy cows became so diseased and exhausted that they could no longer survive for more than a handful of years? Where were they when farmers first started to wield pliers and scissors to mutilate piglets. Where were they when chickens’ beak tips were first seared off and ducks were confined in sheds without water in which to swim. Where are they now that factory-farming


has taken over and 80 per cent of animals lead desperate lives? What do they say when we expose the mundane cruelty of everyday farming. I’ll tell you where they are, what they say and what they’re doing. They are silent because they are an


integral part of modern farming and its irresponsible use of antibiotics They are busy writing out the prescription that allows this insane scenario to continue. They have become so inured to cruelty that they no longer see it. They all suffer from amnesia for when they left college, each and every one of them, undertook to abide by their profession’s equivalent of the Hippocratic oath. “I promise above all that I will pursue


the work of my profession with uprightness of conduct and that my constant endeavour will be to ensure the welfare of the animals committed to my care.” I can’t think of a rejoinder that isn’t


obscenely rude. They could – should – have helped to


put a stop to a system of animal farming that is legalised, acute animal abuse. They have played a central role in the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of micro-organisms that threaten to return us to the dark ages of infectious diseases. They can take some of the blame for at least 30 previously unknown disease agents which have been identified since 1973, including HIV, Ebola, hepatitis C, and Nipah virus, for which no cures are available. And they can certainly hold their hands up to the two new strains of resistant bacteria that appeared last year – one in pigs, the other in dairy cattle. Almost everyone carries some


responsibility for what has happened, either through commission or omission but right in the front line are those who knew better than most. They understood what suffering was, they had the science background to comprehend their actions, they were in a pivotal position to help stop it. And they still are so it’s not too late. Any one of them can break ranks at any time and declare mea culpaand join Viva!’s fight to end this insanity. And I might become prime minister!


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