CHICKEN

1 Corinthians 6:19  What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? 

The problem with poultry comes from the antibiotics these birds are fed in their meal, drugs used primarily to make them more productive rather than to cure sickness. These drugs in turn can help make doctor-prescribed antibiotics less effective--against disease in humans eating the chicken. A processing procedure that critics say is a health hazard  and you've got a health crisis in the making (see "A Day in the Death"). As with all dietary discussions, moderation and common sense are of the essence. If you eat a raw egg every day, never wash your chicken before cooking it and use the same knife to cut up your poultry and your vegetables, then it's your own fault if you eventually get salmonella or campylobacter, the two most common forms of food-borne illnesses from poultry. says specialist Michael Darre. 

Baby Chick : Scientists and researchers everywhere agree that the major culprit in the increasing number of antibiotic resistant bacteria--super bugs if you will--are doctors who prescribe an antibiotic at the least sneeze. These people are closely followed by the patients who come in and demand a drug for said sneeze, especially if the sneeze, runny nose and sore throat belong to a child. To make an increasingly bad situation worse, too many people don't finish their prescriptions. They feel better a few days later and figure they'll save the rest of their prescription to get a jump on the next illness. 

The problem is that although the drug may have killed off 90 percent of the bacteria, that remaining 10 percent becomes stronger and more resistant to the drug, rendering it increasingly ineffective as this pattern continues.  70 percent of all antibiotics produced go into our livestock. Although other food animals such as cattle and pork are fed antibiotics for reasons other than to cure an illness, neither group receives as much as poultry. 

"For sheer over prescription, no doctor can touch the American farmer," notes a Newsweek article called "The End of Antibiotics." "Farm animals receive 30 times more antibiotics (mostly penicillin and tetracycline) than people do. The drugs treat and prevent infections. But the main reasons farmers like them is that they also make cows, hogs and chickens grow faster from each pound of feed. Resistant strains emerge just as they do in humans taking antibiotics--and remain in the animal's flesh even after it winds up in the meat case." Chicken has the potential to have a huge impact on our health is not surprising given its increasing popularity in recent years. In 1960, eggs accounted for 61 percent of gross chicken income in the U.S., with broilers at 34 percent, according to Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit educational group focusing on poultry. 

By 1975, broilers supplied 50 percent of the gross chicken income with eggs coming in at 49 percent. Chicken and turkey began to be regarded as an inexpensive and convenient low-fat protein source. In 1993 U.S. hog producers killed in one week 1.7 million pigs, an average of 10,000 pigs an hour, that standing in single file, would stretch 1,200 miles from New York City to Kansas City.But in that same week U.S. broiler producers killed 135 million chickens, an average of 800,000 chickens an hour, enough to stretch in single file 25,000 miles or completely around the middle of the earth.

A large part of that change can be traced to the increased use of drugs, which in addition to treating sick birds are used  to prevent disease and help promote growth. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, tetracycline, penicillin, erythromycin and other anti-microbial s important to human use are among those used extensively in livestock. A look at some recent reports and trends illustrates why health professionals and others are increasingly concerned. Each year an estimated 1.4 million human salmonella infections occur in the U.S., causing an estimated 80,000 to 160,000 people to seek medical attention, resulting in 16,000 hospitalizations and nearly 600 deaths. According to the CDC, in 1999, salmonella and campylobacter comprised the lion's share--almost 82 percent--of the total food-borne illness cases.

As anyone who has suffered from food poisoning knows, these diseases are not pleasant. People with campylobacteriosis typically have diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain and a fever within two to five days of exposure. 

The diarrhea may be bloody and accompanied by nausea and vomiting, with the symptoms typically lasting one week. Salmonella is a bacterial infection of the intestinal tract causing nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, fever, chills, weakness and exhaustion. To be fair, the incident rates themselves can make the hype seem a tad shallow, especially when you consider the sheer number of meals eaten daily by the U.S. population. But what can be merely unpleasant in a relatively healthy person can become potentially life-threatening in the young, whose immune systems are typically less developed, and in the elderly or immune-suppressed. It is these people who typically seek medical attention for these diseases--and who are more likely to die if the antibiotics to cure them don't work. Critics also worry that these trends could be the beginning of what might ultimately, when tied in with overuse in human medicine, be a return to a pre-antibiotic world. In 1990 and 1995 the CDC found that 40 percent of people with salmonella infections who sought medical attention were treated with antimicrobial agents. Ciprofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone, was the most commonly prescribed antibiotic. Enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin's counterpart for animals, has been given to U.S. poultry since 1995.

Free range: USDA regulations require chickens labeled "free range" to have had "some sort of access to the outdoors for some portion of the day." Free-range chickens are generally confined to a pen adjacent to their enclosed chicken houses."The impression everyone has is that they're raised in a pasture and run around finding worms and bugs to eat and picking at grass," says the National Chicken Council's Richard Lobb, noting that very few, if any, farmers would allow chickens free-run of their farms. "As far as we can tell [free range] is more of a marketing concept than a method of animal husbandry." The National Chicken Council is a trade organization representing chicken producers.

Antibiotic use aside, some critics say it's the way poultry is produced that's the problem. Karen Davis is director of United Poultry Concerns, Inc., a nonprofit educational group focusing on all things poultry. In her highly-documented book, Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs, An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry, she outlines in horrific detail the many ways in which she feels chickens are abused in their short lives.Chickens ready for plucking among the highlights she presents regarding broiler chickens: chronic painful bone problems associated with rapid growth, sick birds being slaughtered for human consumption: 

"Every week throughout the South, millions of chickens leaking yellow pus, stained by green feces, contaminated by harmful bacteria, or marred by lung and heart infections, cancerous tumors or skin conditions are shipped for sale to consumers, instead of being condemned and destroyed." Those in the industry insist there is no cruelty and that conditions are fine, both for the chickens and in terms of producing a good product that will not harm humans. "You don't do these things," says Michael Darre, extension poultry specialist at UConn, "if you want to sell. A good grower knows the birds are his money."The farms, for instance, have venting systems to get rid of excess ammonia.

He ticks off other pluses: Pancake heaters keep chicks warm; the crates that take birds to slaughter only hold about eight to 10 chickens; the ride to the processing plant is usually short; once the hens are shackled upside down on the conveyor belt, they are put in a dark room, which relaxes them. "We can't anthropomorphize," Darre says. As for the stunning, it renders them "senseless."  

Acts 15:29 That you abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if you keep yourselves, you will  do well. Fare you well. 

Lord, help me surrender all to you, who gave all for me. Amen