CRITICAL ROLE OF BIRDS IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON

Scientists highlight the critical role of birds in forest regeneration
Laura Briggs

White-tailed cotinga

16th January, 2017
Reproduced from THE ECOLOGIST

The loss of birds could significantly impact efforts to combat deforestation, according to research from scientists looking at species across the Brazilian Amazon. LAURA BRIGGS reports

Understanding the implications of the loss of bird species for ecosystem function is crucial to our understanding of the future trajectories of Amazonian landscapes
Study results, published in the Journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences show that the understanding of animals and their physical traits is vital to saving tropical ecosystems.

According to the research, understanding land-use change is important because tropical forests are integral to the long-term stability of global air quality and climate cycles. The health of tropical forests is reliant on biodiversity - and is helped by animals spreading seeds to regenerate growth. In fact it is thought 90% of tropical tree and shrub species rely on animals for seed dispersal.

Lead author of the study Dr Tom Bregman of Oxford University and the Global Canopy Programme, says: "We provide compelling evidence that the loss of tropical bird species following land use change will disrupt both seed dispersal and rates of insect herbivory, both regulated by birds. This has important implications for the ability of tropical forests to recover from human activities including deforestation."

Scientists worked across 330 locations in different habitat types varying from soybean fields to undisturbed forest with a team of scientists looking at potential change on two ecosystem processes for which birds play important roles, specifically with regard to seed dispersal and insect predation.

According to Dr Alexander Lees, one of the scientists involved in the research from Manchester Metropolitan University, the study is extremely timely: "Understanding the implications of the loss of bird species for ecosystem function is crucial to our understanding of the future trajectories of Amazonian landscapes, he said.

Data on bird community composition, collected by the Sustainable Amazon Network, was reviwed together with data on bird morphology from museum specimens to look at the ‘functional trait structure' of Amazonian forest bird communities - size, diet, wing and tails, and their occurrence across habitats. Data from bird specimens deposited in museums in Brazil, the UK and the USA was also used.

The team recorded that a loss of birds cuts the chance of forests bouncing back from deforestation. It is the birds' physical traits, such as beak or tail size, which provide a window for scientists to assess the impact of environmental change.

Results suggest that local extinctions of birds caused by the loss and degradation of their tropical forest habitats are not random with respect to the bird's traits. For example, the loss of large-billed and long-winged species in agricultural landscapes and in regenerating secondary forests means that certain large-seeded tree species will likely not have their seeds dispersed in future.

The loss of certain kinds of insectivorous bird species will also mean a lack of control of herbivorous insects, many of which can be pests in agricultural landscapes. The distribution of the species and their traits can then be used to assess whether we maintain or lose ecosystem functionality as land-use change intensifies.

Dr Joseph Tobias, of Imperial College London, says: "The ‘biodiversity services' that tropical forest birds supply are crucial for forests to function properly. Our work shows that they are more effectively retained in primary forests that have not been completely cleared, rather than secondary forests regenerating after total clearance." He added that these services collapse in agricultural land-uses such as pasture and arable.

Dr Lees adds: "Data from specimens held in natural history museums underpinned this study; yet these institutions are often woefully underfunded and undervalued, despite being crucial for efforts to catalogue and understand global biodiversity."

Understanding the provisioning of key ecosystem processes such as seed dispersal and control of herbivory will help to understand whether tropical forests will have impaired or reduced resilience in future. If this is the case, forests damaged by fire and logging are unlikely to come back strongly because species have been lost that assist in the process.

Eliminating wild fires, reducing the impact of logging and enforcing the protection of hunted species will help to maintain the health of these ecosystem processes and the forests that depend on them.

This Author

Laura Briggs is the Ecologist's UK news reporter specialising in reporting on ecology and the environment. You can follow her here @WordsbyBriggs

EXPERIMENTS IN RATS: "ROUNDUP" RESIDUES IN FOOD (AND FAT IN LIVER)

Roundup residues in food cause fatty liver disease

Claire Robinson / GMWatch

9th January 2017

Cutting-edge molecular profiling analyses reveal that the popular weedkiller Roundup causes serious liver damage to rats at low doses permitted by regulators, reports Claire Robinson. The findings suggest that residues of glyphosate-based herbicides in food could be linked to rises in the incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes and 'metabolic syndrome'.

As reported in http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2988500/roundup_residues_in_food_cause_fatty_liver_disease.html

The weedkiller Roundup causes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease at very low doses permitted by regulators worldwide, a new peer-reviewed studypublished by a Nature journal shows.

The study is the first ever to show a causative link between consumption of Roundup at a real-world environmentally relevant dose and a serious disease.

The new peer-reviewed study, led by Dr Michael Antoniou at King's College London, used cutting-edge profiling methods to describe the molecular composition of the livers of female rats fed an extremely low dose of Roundup weedkiller, which is based on the chemical glyphosate, over a 2-year period.

The dose of glyphosate from the Roundup administered was thousands of times below what is permitted by regulators worldwide.

The study revealed that these animals suffered from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Dr Antoniou said: "The findings of our study are very worrying as they demonstrate for the first time a causative link between an environmentally relevant level of Roundup consumption over the long-term and a serious disease - namely non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Our results also suggest that regulators should reconsider the safety evaluation of glyphosate-based herbicides."

Potentially serious implications for human health

The new results demonstrate that long-term consumption of an ultra-low dose of Roundup at a glyphosate daily intake level of only 4 nanograms per kilogram of bodyweight per day, which is 75,000 times below EU and 437,500 below US permitted levels, results in NAFLD.

Regulators worldwide accept toxicity studies in rats as indicators of human health risks. So the results of this latest study have serious implications for human health.

NAFLD currently affects 25% of the US population and similar numbers of Europeans. Risk factors include being overweight or obese, having diabetes, or having high cholesterol or high triglycerides (a constituent of body fat) in the blood. However, some people develop NAFLD even if they do not have any of these known risk factors. The new study raises the question of whether exposure to Roundup is a hitherto unrecognized risk factor.

Symptoms of NAFLD include fatigue, weakness, weight loss, loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal pain, spider-like blood vessels, yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice), itching, fluid build-up and swelling of the legs and abdomen, and mental confusion.

NAFLD can progress to the more serious condition, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NASH causes the liver to swell and become damaged.

Most people with NASH are between the ages of 40 and 60 years. It is more common in women than in men. NASH is one of the leading causes of cirrhosis in adults in the United States. Up to 25% of adults with NASH may also have cirrhosis.

Background to the study

The rat body tissues used in this analysis were obtained from a previous study led by Prof Gilles-Eric Séralini of the University of Caen, France.

In this original investigation, rats were given an extremely low, environmentally relevant dose of a commercial Roundup formulation at 0.1 ppb (parts per billion) / 50 ppt (parts per trillion) glyphosate via drinking water for 2 years. Daily intake of glyphosate from the Roundup was 4 nanograms per kilogram of body weight per day, which is thousands of times below what is permitted by regulators.

Analysis of the organs and blood / urine biochemical levels in the original study by Prof Séralini suggested a higher incidence of liver and kidney damage in the animals given Roundup compared to controls given plain drinking water.

Dr Antoniou's group has conducted distinct followup investigations on the rat body tissues from this ultra-low-dose Roundup treatment group, using in-depth molecular analytical procedures and statistical analytical methods that are appropriate for this type of research.

First follow-up study: increased damage to vital organs

In the first follow-up investigation, a transcriptomics (gene function profile) analysis was performed on the livers and kidneys from the female animals.

The results strongly supported the observations made at an anatomical (organ) and blood / urine biochemical level in the Séralini study - namely that the organs of the animals given Roundup suffered more structural and functional damage than the controls.

The transcriptomics results indicated an increased incidence of fibrosis (scarring), necrosis (areas of dead tissue), phospholipidosis (disturbed fat metabolism) and damage to mitochondria (the centres of respiration in cells) in the Roundup-fed animals.

However, although transcriptomics analysis is able to predict health or disease status of an organ, it does not provide definitive proof of harm. This is mainly because it does not give a direct measure of the actual biochemistry of the organ under study.

Also, alterations in gene function resulting from a test do not always result in the types of changes in physical composition that could lead to disease.

And now: definitive confirmation of liver dysfunction from low dose of Roundup

In the new study the researchers undertook a followup protein composition profile ('proteomics') and small molecule metabolite biochemical profile ('metabolomics') investigation of the same liver samples to confirm the prediction of disease suggested by the transcriptomics gene expression profile analysis.

As the proteomics and metabolomics directly measure the actual composition of the organ, these analytical methods provide a definitive assessment of its health or disease status.

"Overall", the authors conclude, "metabolome and proteome disturbances showed a substantial overlap with biomarkers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and its progression to steatohepatosis (serious fatty liver disease) and thus confirm liver functional dysfunction resulting from chronic ultra-low dose [glyphosate] exposure."

Proteins significantly disturbed (214 out of 1906 detected), as shown by the proteomics profiling, reflected a type of cell damage from reactive oxygen (peroxisomal proliferation), steatosis (serious fatty liver disease) and necrosis (areas of dead tissue).

The metabolomics analysis (55 metabolites altered out of 673 detected) confirmed lipotoxic (excess fatty tissue) conditions and oxidative stress. Metabolite alterations were also associated with hallmarks of serious liver toxicity.

Glyphosate responsible for rising diabetes and obesity?

The authors also suggest that the findings may have considerable relevance to human health problems such as obesity and diabetes:

"Our observations may have human health implication since NAFLD is predicted to be the next major global epidemic. Approximately 20-30% of the population in the United States carry extra fat in their livers. NAFLD is associated with the recent rapid rise in the incidence of diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.

"Overall, it is acknowledged that NAFLD is mostly caused by excess caloric intake, but also from the consumption of processed foods, which increases simple sugar and saturated fat ingestion as well as sedentary lifestyles.

"However, many suffer from NAFLD but which do not have any high risk factors and thus other contributors to disease, such as exposure to physiologically active environmental pollutants via contaminated food, cannot be excluded."

 

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CHIEF OF AMAZONIAN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE CLAIMS FOR HELP

This is my cry of alarm, please listen to me!

17th October, 2016

Almir Narayamoga Surui, Chief of the Paiter Surui indigenous people

Reproduced from http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2988245/this_is_my_cry_of_alarm_please_listen_to_me.html

The Chief of the Paiter Surui indigenous people in the state of Rondônia, Brazil has issued the following plea for help to stop illegal logging and mining on their lands. The letter is unedited.

The implications are terrible. In addition to environmental damage (and the challenge to our way of life), these invasions directly endanger our families and our children. Indeed, we are under the threat of weapons of loggers and miners!

To whom it may concern, 

I am Almir Narayamoga Surui, Chief of the Paiter Surui indigenous people. Our population lives on the 'Sete de Setembro indigenous territory' in the state of Rondônia, Brazil.

This is my cry of alarm, please listen to me! 

Since the beginning of this year 2016, we are undergoing a total invasion of deforesters and miners of diamonds and gold. Every day, 300 trucks leave our territory filled with wood, which represents 600 hectares of deforested forests. And it continues to increase, whilst according to the Constitution of Brazil, it is illegal to deforest an indigenous reservation.

On the ground, the illegal loggers have heavy means, with Caterpillar machines. We have found mercury and cyanide in three rivers of Surui territory because of the miners!

The implications are terrible. In addition to environmental damage (and the challenge to our way of life), these invasions directly endanger our families and our children. Indeed, we are under the threat of weapons of loggers and miners! Either one collaborates, or they put a gun to our heads!

In addition, they try to bribe some of my people with money. For lack of alternatives, some of my people accept, against their first resolve to protect the forest. The situation is terrible!

We, the Surui indigenous people are the first to have set up a REDD+ project to save the Amazon forest, lungs of our planet. But these invasions undermine the Agreement of REDD and go against the spirit of the agreement of the COP21!

Despite our appeals for help against this mafia, the new government did not react. By their silence, they are silent accomplices of this destruction of the forest and our people!

We do not know what to do, Help! 

As citizens, NGOs or institutions, you can help us in four ways:

1. We ask you to write to the Brazilian embassies in your own countries to express your outrage and ask the new Brazilian government to intervene quickly.

2. We also ask you to boycott all Brazilian products, as the Brazilian government does not react.

3. We ask the different political bodies to establish an international observer mission on deforestation.

4. Finally, on behalf of the Surui people and of all indigenous people who are trying to protect the Amazon rainforest, in the name of our struggle to preserve a future for all children of this planet at the price of our lives, in the name hope for the future, we ask you to distribute this letter to all your contacts in the world and on social networks, because today we are all connected in a common destiny.

Thanking you, 

Almir Narayamoga Surui, Leader of the Paiter Surui Indigenous People.

 

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE OCEANS!!!

https://www.usgs.gov/news/warmer-ocean-waters-seen-spur-drought-africa

Release Date: DECEMBER 15, 2016

Monitoring drought vital to success of humanitarian relief

"Really?” and “Strange, but true” might be popular reactions to the idea that periodic El Niño events in the Pacific Ocean could have a long distance influence on drought conditions in Africa, almost half-a-world away. Unlikely as it may seem, these connections are widely accepted by climate scientists and weather experts across the globe. Strange, but true, indeed.

El Niño and its counterpart, La Niña, are the warm and cool phases of a recurring climate pattern across the tropical Pacific — the El Niño-Southern Oscillation – that shifts back and forth irregularly every two to seven years. By disrupting large-scale air movements in the tropics and thus affecting temperature, precipitation, and winds, these changes in the Pacific Ocean set off a cascade of global side effects with each oscillation.

Drought comes to Africa

In the northern hemisphere’s winter and fall of 2015, El Niño reached a record high temperature in December-January-February and triggered historic levels of famine far away in east Africa. A related drought across southern Africa affected 30 million people. In November of 2016 Zimbabwe still faced severe water shortages.

Observed Niño 3.4 sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies (vertical bars) and estimates of El Niño SST anomalies. Compared to an ensemble of climate change simulations (red line).  USGS image produced by Chris Funk. Public domain.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of California Santa Barbara, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tracked the severe droughts in eastern and southern Africa. This science team has recently published a paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (chapter 15) that assesses the extent that warmer ocean waters resulting from human-caused climate change likely intensified the impacts of the drought.

The authors of the study evaluated the impacts of the rainfall reductions and air temperature increases in Africa during this period by means of a contra-positive experiment, in which a “world without climate change” was simulated in complex hydrologic models. These experiments revealed that the warming of El Niño beyond its historical averages during 1946-1975 likely helped produce a very large reduction in streamflow: 35% for Ethiopia and 48% for Southern Africa. Both regions experienced severe water shortages, as illustrated by estimates of per capita water availability.

“In summary, what we seem to be seeing,” said Chris Funk, a USGS scientist and lead author of the study, “is that, as the oceans warm due to climate change, pockets of very warm sea surface temperatures develop that often act to increase the impact of natural climate variations such as El Niño and La Niña. These extreme sea surface temperatures can intensify droughts over food insecure areas, contributing to water stress and disrupting economic growth.”

The data and scientific reasoning for these findings are detailed in the publicly available professional paper.

Weakened livestock in Arsi Negele, south-central Ethiopia, Sept. 2, 2015.  Photo credit: Getachew Abate (FEWS NET) and Kelbessa Beyene (World Food Programme), public domain.

Monitoring drought to get ahead of famine

Ethiopia suffered drought conditions in 2015 that were comparable to the severe drought and ensuing famine of 1984, during which hundreds of thousands of people perished. Like the case in the 1980s, the 2015 Ethiopian drought was related to a strong El Niño. Unlike that terrible episode, widespread acute food insecurity was avoided in 2015-2016 due to effective climate services, early warning of potential food insecurity, and social safety nets, particularly through the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).

USGS Water Hole Status map, early December 2016. Information source: earlywarning.usgs.gov

Created by USAID in 1985 to help decision-makers plan for humanitarian crises, FEWS NET provides evidence-based analysis of food insecurity in some 35 countries. Implementing team members include the government agencies of NASA, NOAA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and USGS, along with the commercial entities, Chemonics International Inc. and Kimetrica.

Scientists at USGS, University of California Santa Barbara, NASA, and NOAA monitored the severe droughts associated with the extreme 2015-16 El Niño event in partnership with FEWS NET specialists in Africa and Washington, helping the U.S. Agency for International Development provide early and effective humanitarian assistance. The combined information derived from U.S. satellite remote sensing, climate forecasting, and land surface modeling capabilities provided the agro-climatic evidence needed by FEWS NET food security analysts to project livelihood impacts many months in advance. The resulting early warning of potential acute food insecurity was instrumental in mobilizing the resources needed to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

Learn more

Funk, C. and L. Harrison, S. Shukla, A. Hoell, D. Korecha, T. Magadzire, G. Husak, G. Gideon. “Assessing the Contributions of Local and East Pacific Warming to the 2015 Droughts in Ethiopia and Southern Africa” in “Explaining Extremes of 2015 from a Climate Perspective,” Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 97 (12), S14–S18, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0149.

USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS)
University of California Santa Barbara Climate Hazards Group
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Physical Sciences Division
USGS FEWS NET

FIGHTING FOR THE AMAZON DESPITE ELECTION'S RESULTS

http://amazonwatch.org/news/2016/1107-no-matter-the-outcome-of-tomorrows-election-well-continue-to-fight-for-the-amazon?utm_source=Amazon+Watch+Newsletter+and+Updates&utm_campaign=16991f4cbc-2016-11-07-video-new&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e6f929728b-16991f4cbc-341634521&mc_cid=16991f4cbc&mc_eid=929388f719

DO NOT BLAME NATURE FOR DISASTERS: ALLOW MANGROVE FORESTS TO RECOVER

Allowing mangrove forests to recover naturally result in more resilient habitats that benefit both wildlife and people, say conservationists

Reproduced from BBC NEWS - Environment

In Indonesia, a Wetlands International project uses permeable dams to restore sediment needed for the trees to grow.

The charity says early results suggest "ecological restoration" is more effective than planting programmes.

More than half of the world's most at-risk habitats have been felled or lost over the past century, UN data shows.

Mangroves are a group of about 80 different salt-tolerant species of trees that are able to live along the intertidal zones of coastlines in tropical and sub-tropical regions.

The characteristic root systems of these trees allow them to withstand the ebb and flow of daily tides. The roots also act as buffers, slowing the flow of the tidal waters, allowing sediment to settle and build up as nutrient-rich mud.

The unique habitats provide valuable shelter and breeding sites for fish, as well as stabilising coastlines, reducing erosion from storm surges and tsunamis.

Life-saver

A report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) shortly after the 2004 Asia tsunami, which killed more than 200,000 people in nations lining the Indian Ocean, highlighted how in-tact mangrove forests provided protection to coastal communities.

It reported that two people were killed in a Sri Lankan village with dense mangrove and scrub forest, but up to 6,000 people lost their lives in a settlement that was no longer protected by similar vegetation.

Following the 2004 tsunami, the importance of robust and resilient mangrove forests became widely recognised, explained Femke Tonneijck, Wetlands International's programme manager for coastal wetlands.

"This resulted in many mangrove restoration efforts around the world, many of which were implemented through planting programmes by NGOs, governments and business," she said.

"Now we are seeing that many of those planting efforts are failing, and there are a number of reasons for this. 

"One of the most important reasons is that there is a wrong species-to-site match because mangroves have a natural [gradient] from land to sea, in which there is a mix of species that are best adapted to the level of salinity, wave exposure and submergence. 

"This is why we now focus more on ecological mangrove restoration," Ms Tonneijck told BBC News.

She said researchers had been carrying out a series of studies on this approach to conservation and it had been shown to deliver "much better results".

"This is because if you have a mix of natural species, ages and root types, as well as different types of fruit, fodder and timber, the diversity makes the system more resilient, as well as a forest that offers multiple benefits to a diverse group of stakeholders, as there are different species of fish taking shelter in the different root systems," she added.

However, planting programmes still remained popular because many schemes, often government-funded, measured success on the number of trees planted rather than the longer term survival rate.

"Also, there is no measurement of ecosystem services returning, such as coastal protection, and this may give people a false sense of protection," Ms Tonneijck warned.

In 2011, Wetlands International was invited to undertake a ecological mangrove restoration project in Central Java by the Indonesian government's marine and fisheries department.

Two villages in the area had been lost and the sea was encroaching inland up to three kilometres, destroying arable land.

Ms Tonneijck explained how the team restored the conditions needed for the mangrove to return to landscape.

"Working with Deltares, the Dutch knowledge institute, we were inspired by Dutch and German marshes where land was regained by putting permeable dams in place," she recalled.

"These permeable structures let waves pass through with sediment and behind the structures the sediment can settle. Once it had settled then the mangroves were able to come back into the area.

"We started first with a small pilot, and as the sediment trapping worked really well, we decided to set up a larger project that was supported by Dutch funds and the Indonesian government as well."

Wetland International's Building with Nature programme is now looking at restoring the "mangrove greenbelt" throughout the district.

"In the area where it is eroding, we are applying these permeable dams and we have already placed two kilometres of them," Ms Tonneijck revealed.

"As well as the mangroves slowly coming back in, we are also seeing that people are becoming very enthusiastic and they really want to do something - people immediately want to start planting as soon as there is sedimentation. 

"So we have started a dialogue explaining why we are preferring to wait for nature to come back.

SUPERBUGS ANTIBIOTICS RESISTANT WILL BE EXTERMINATED IF...KEEP OFF FACTORY FARMED MEAT!!!

Photo below was taken in a "first world country"!!!

Reproduced from

http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2988153/to_stop_antibiotic_resistant_superbugs_keep_off_factory_farmed_meat.html

All 193 UN states will sign a declaration today to fight the spread of drug-resistant 'superbugs', writes Alastair Kenneil. The problem is often blamed on overprescription of antibiotics by doctors. But that's to ignore the massive use of antibiotics on animals in factory farms, both to prevent infection and to assist weight gain - turning farms into superbug breeding centres.

For decades factory farmers have been pumping antibiotics into livestock to compensate for inhumane and disease-inducing conditions. Now, bacteria are fighting back.

A new ground-breaking study of factory farmed UK supermarket pork and chicken has found that 71% of the samples were contaminated with antibiotic-resistant E. coli bacteria that cause life-threatening kidney infections and blood poisoning. The figure for just pork was alarmingly 63%.

Pigs in factory farms are so overcrowded, stressed and unhealthy they have to be routinely given antibiotics even when no disease has been diagnosed in any of the animals. What's more, drugs classed as ‘critically important' for people may be used.

In the EU, from where 54% of the pork consumed in the UK is imported, factory pig farms can keep pregnant mother pigs confined in steel cages for 20 weeks a year. In UK low welfare farms, including Red Tractor, this is allowed for 11 weeks a year when she is feeding her piglets.

The high levels of stress from having to endure weeks of this torture makes her vulnerable to injuries and disease.

To achieve maximum weight gain piglets in factory farms can be taken away from their mothers when they are only 21 days old, too early for their immune systems to develop properly. This means they have to be routinely given antibiotics as an integral part of the production cycle.

Intensive farms 'breeding' antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Just as doctors strive to reduce antibiotic use in the surgery, so farm use is increasing. Around a quarter of all antibiotics prescribed in the UK are given to pigs in factory farms. This routine misuse of antibiotics means that bacteria become resistant, bringing us closer to the end of antibiotics as a cure for an increasing number of human diseases.

The study, commissioned by the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics and conducted by Dr Mark Holmes from Cambridge University, is the first study to examine UK-origin retail meat for resistance to a wide range of key antibiotics for treating dangerous E. coliurinary-tract and blood-poisoning infections in people.

The study tested 189 samples of low welfare, UK-origin pork and chicken meat from the seven largest supermarkets from across the UK (ASDA, Aldi, Coop, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose).

Across factory farmed pig and chicken meat from all these supermarkets, the study found E.coli bacteria resistant to three highly important antibiotics for treating E.coli infections in people.

The research found soaring levels of resistance in chicken meat, with a staggering 24% of chicken samples testing positive for ESBL E. coli, a type of E. coli which is resistant to a family of antibiotics classed as ‘critically important' for people (the cephalosporins). These antibiotics are widely used for treating life-threatening E. coli blood poisoning in humans.

On 19% of pig and chicken meat, E. coli bacteria showed high levels of resistance to the antibiotic Gentamicin, which is of vital importance in treating serious urinary tract infections in people. Resistance to another essential antibiotic, Trimethoprim (which is the most widely used drug for treating lower urinary-tract infections in people) was found on 51% of pork & chicken samples.

The findings provide further evidence that the overuse of antibiotics on British farms is undermining the treatment of dangerous E. coli infections in humans.

Exposing humans to potentially fatal infections

This is of huge concern, as the number of serious E. coli infections is at a record high and increasing every year. E.coli is by far the most common cause of urinary tract and dangerous blood poisoning in humans, and can also cause meningitis. These kinds of infections can be fatal if they do not respond to antibiotics.

But the last 25 years has seen a steady increase in resistance to some of the most important remaining antibiotics which can treat these infections. No new antibiotics for treating E. coli infections have been discovered for over 35 years.

Increasing resistance is leading to record levels of E. coli blood poisoning. Figures we have assembled show that in 2015 there were over 45,000 E. coli blood poisoning infections in the UK.

The number of blood-poisoning infections has increased every year since 2000 (when it stood at about 12,000 or so), and is increasing by about 2,000 each year now. E. coli is by far the most common cause of blood poisoning nowadays, causing more blood poisoning than the next four bacterial causes of blood poisoning combined.

Meanwhile, many important antibiotics - including a number of those examined in the study - are used in far greater quantities in livestock farming than in human medicine, often given to whole groups of (mostly healthy) animals.

This systematic overuse of antibiotics in factory farms is fuelling the emergence of resistant bacteria. These superbugs can then pass to humans through the environment, or via meat that we buy in the supermarket.

The antibiotic resistance crisis is predicted to kill one person every 3 seconds by 2050. Over a third of these deaths will be caused by drug-resistant E. coli. This catastrophe is now unfolding before us.

The silience of the supermarkets

Supermarkets have remained too silent on this issue. While our vital drugs fail, they continue to permit unacceptable antibiotic use in their supply chains.

Supermarkets must now take share the responsibility for tackling this crisis by banning the routine preventative mass medication of groups of animals, dramatically curbing farm-use of the ‘critically important' antibiotics in their supply chains, and setting specifications around good animal husbandry.

Animals should - and can - be kept healthy through good husbandry and welfare, not through routine medication. It's time to stop sacrificing our animals - and our antibiotics - for cheap meat.

As farmers strive to compete with cheap imported pork, many farmers break EU and the UK regulations by depriving the growing pigs of straw (or other bedding material) to reduce labour costs. Crammed into small pens without the ability to express their natural instincts to root in straw for food and play with, pigs are stressed and fight thus increasing their vulnerability to disease.

Without straw the pig waste can more easily drop through the concrete floor slats into tanks underneath. The effluent is spread onto fields, sickening local residents with a toxic stench of ammonia and a cocktail of other gases and disease-causing bio aerosols.

This effluent inevitably leaks into watercourses, killing fish and other wildlife in rivers and the sea. In contrast, pig waste on outdoor farms, whose certification system demands limited pig numbers, nourishes the soil and forms part of the crop cycle that grows the pig feed.

Competing with imports is driving UK farmers in to a downward spiral where farms have to consolidate and reduce labour or go bankrupt. In the past 15 years the UK pig herd has dropped by half, while 70% of the imports have been raised in conditions that are illegal in the UK.

Join the growing movement for high-welfare farming!

The good news is that conscientious consumers are buying pork from high welfare farms. Today 25% of UK pork has been raised either outdoors, or indoors with plenty of straw and space to move around, where the pigs are happy and healthy and rarely, if ever, need antibiotics.

The solution? Of course we must back today's UN initiative to tackle the problem of microbial resistance on a global level. But we can also act closer to home and join the growing movement against factory farming by only buying meat from high welfare farms.

How? In supermarkets, only buy pork with the labels RSPCA Assured, Outdoor Bred, Free Range or best of all, Organic. Ask for high welfare pork in butchers, farmers' markets or online.

It doesn't cost much more - four sausages from a factory pig farm cost the same as three sausages from a real farm where pigs are healthy and free to move around. Reducing our meat intake also helps avoid obesity, diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer.

We can all give up half a sausage and help bring an end to pig factories, for our health and humanity's sake.

 PS

Alastair Kenneil is a campaigner with Pig Pledge, a project of Farms not Factories. As a former hill farmer raising sheep in Argyll, he became aware that animals thrive out of doors in a natural environment, and committed to the virtues of sustainable farming. He later became a film-maker, working on TV documentaries about remote communities around the world and their distinctive cultures for the BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery.

Take the Pig Pledge now!

Petition:  Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Health: Please save our antibiotics! (38 Degrees)

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