Most Recent Posts

When it comes to the current controversy over antibiotic use on farm animals, milk is in a special category.

Lactating cows, unlike hogs, cattle or chickens that are raised for their meat, don't receive antibiotics unless they are actually sick. That's because drug residues immediately appear in the cow's milk — a violation of food safety rules.

Milk shipments are tested for six of the most widely used antibiotics, and any truckload that tests positive is rejected. So when cows are treated, farmers discard their milk for several days until the residues disappear.

Yet a new report from the Food and Drug Administration reveals that a few farmers are slipping through a hole in this enforcement net. These farmers are using antibiotics that the routine tests don't try to detect, because the drugs aren't supposed to be used on dairy cows at all.

The FDA looked for 31 different drugs in samples of milk from almost 2,000 dairy farms. About half of the farms — the "targeted" group — had come under suspicion for sending cows to slaughter that turned out to have drug residues in their meat. The other farms were a random sample of all milk producers.

Just over 1 percent of the samples from the "targeted" group, and 0.4 percent of the randomly collected samples, contained drug residues. An antibiotic called Florfenicol was the most common drug detected, but 11 other drugs also turned up. Perhaps most disturbing: None of the drugs that the FDA detected are approved for use in lactating dairy cows.

Because the survey was carried out for research purposes, the samples were collected anonymously, and the FDA cannot send investigators to the farms to find out what happened.

Mike Apley, a researcher at Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, says that it is "totally illegal" for dairy farmers to use two of the drugs that the FDA detected: Ciproflaxacin and Sulfamethazine.

In the case of other drugs, he says, the situation is more complicated. It's illegal for farmers to use those drugs on their own, but veterinarians are allowed to authorize their use in dairy cows under certain strict conditions. Veterinarians also are supposed to ensure that no residues enter the food supply. For whatever reason, that veterinary safeguard didn't work in these cases.

Dr. William Flynn, deputy director for science policy in the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, chose to focus on the fact that the violations were uncommon. "These are encouraging findings," Flynn tells The Salt. The low number of violations indicates that "things are working well."

Flynn says the FDA is working on plans to stop illegal drug use by dairy farmers. This could include testing all milk for a larger number of antibiotics.

Morgan Scott, a veterinary epidemiologist at Texas A&M University, noted that a small number of farmers, through their reckless use of drugs, may end up imposing substantial costs on all other dairy farmers.

"That, to me, is tragic, that some farmers don't think that keeping the reputation of the industry intact is a priority," he says.

antibiotics in animals

dairy industry

Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to call for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ouster in upcoming parliamentary elections.

As NPR's Emily Harris reports, the gathering did not endorse a specific alternative: "Many of the Israelis filling Rabin Square in central Tel Aviv Saturday night said they didn't know who they were going to vote for. But most ... were against Netanyahu."

The Associated Press calls the rally "the highest profile demonstration yet in the run-up to the election."

The rally's speaker was ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who said Netanyahu was the person who had caused "the greatest strategic damage to Israel."

"I fear our current leadership," he said, warning that the Gaza war "ended with no deterrence and no diplomatic achievements," according to ynet.com.

The Times of Israel reports that in a statement responding to Dagan's speech, the Likud party said that "the rally in Tel Aviv is part of a campaign orchestrated by the left [and] funded by millions of dollars from abroad. The aim is to change the nationalist Likud government headed by Netanyahu with a left wing government headed by [Tzipi] Livni and [Isaac Herzog] which will be supported by the Arab parties."

The Times says the statement "noted that despite what it called Dagan's left wing ideology, the Mossad chief requested to extend his service under Netanyahu. The party asserted that the public knows that only a Netanyahu government can prevent a nuclear Iran and the establishment of a 'terror state' in the West Bank."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel

As the U.S. prepares to reopen its embassy in communist Cuba, relations with another Latin American nation — oil-rich Venezuela — are crumbling.

President Nicolas Maduro accuses the U.S. of plotting a coup against him, and is expelling most U.S. diplomats from Venezuela. He is also demanding that Americans secure visas to enter the country.

The visa requirement is still so new that upon my arrival in Caracas this week without one, the immigration official doesn't even notice. She stamps my U.S. passport and says, "Welcome."

I'm here in time for the second anniversary of the death of Hugo Chavez, who led Venezuela's socialist revolution until he succumbed to cancer. The events include military parades and a modern dance performance about Chavez, whom many Venezuelans still adore.

By contrast, Maduro is struggling. He has failed to tame one of the world's highest inflation rates, food shortages are getting worse and the economy last year contracted by almost 3 percent.

But instead of rebooting his economic policies, Maduro is lashing out at critics. Last month, police arrested Antonio Ledezma, the opposition mayor of Caracas, for allegedly taking part in a U.S.-backed conspiracy against the government. Ledezma and U.S. officials have strongly denied these accusations.

Parallels

Venezuela Braces For A Tough Year Ahead

Parallels

Rich In Oil, Venezuela Is Now Poor In Most Everything Else

The American ambassador was kicked out of Venezuela five years ago.

The Two-Way

Eggs, Milk And Ink: Venezuela Wants All Supermarket Shoppers Fingerprinted

But in a televised speech, Maduro announced that he would also expel most of the remaining 100 U.S. diplomats. Also, just as Venezuelans must apply for U.S. visas, he said Americans must now do the same for Venezuela.

But in blaming the U.S. for nearly all his problems, Maduro is crying wolf, says Xabier Coscojuela, editor of the Caracas newspaper Tal Cual.

"I've lost count of the number of alleged plots to overthrow or kill the president," Coscojuela says. "It's something like ten over the past two years. But there is no credible evidence in any of these cases."

Still, Milos Alcalay, a former Venezuelan diplomat, says the conspiracy theories are repeated so often in state-run media that some Venezuelans are convinced.

"This is what Cuba did for 50 years — manifestation against imperialism, against the United States," Alcalay says.

The message also resonates because, in the past, there have been real conspiracies. In 2002, Chavez was briefly ousted in a military-backed uprising that he claimed — without proof — was supported by the United States.

A visit to a Caracas slum uncovers deep distrust for the United States. Edgar Angarita, who runs a street-side lunch stand, speculates about a possible U.S. military attack on Venezuela.

"It's happened everywhere — in Afghanistan, in Vietnam," Angarita says. "Under any pretext, they could just send in a few drones."

But Coscojuela calls Maduro's latest anti-American salvos a smokescreen to divert attention from the collapsing economy.

"If Maduro truly believed Washington was out to get him," Coscojuela says, "he could take much stronger actions — like severing diplomatic ties or cutting off oil sales. So far, Maduro has done neither."

How do you turn a contagious disease like tuberculosis from a set of statistics — 9 million cases, 1.5 million deaths a year — into a human story?

One way is by making a 4 1/2 minute video.

"Thembi Jakiwe: Strength of a Woman" is the story of a 12-year-old South African girl with a sweet, shy smile and luminous eyes. She is the oldest in her TB ward, she tells the camera. She thinks of herself as the mother of the ward, holding hands with and looking after the younger kids.

To beat TB, she needs 180 injections. This is Day 14. The very thought of the injection, she confesses, upsets her: "I'm nervous and I'm shaking." She doesn't share her feelings with the other kids "because they don't have to know, I have to be strong."

Wearing a pretty pink coat, she lies face down on a hospital table. Her smile vanishes. A hospital worker prepares the injection. The screen goes blank for a second and you hear the girl's moans and tears. Then she's in the backseat of a car, waving brightly as she heads home for a weekend break from the clinic.

Thembi Jakiwe: Strength of a Woman from Visual Epidemiology on Vimeo.

"She's literally my role model now, and I have very few 12-year-old role models," says Jonathan Smith, a Yale University epidemiologist who co-created this video at his nonprofit company Visual Epidemiology. "Tuberculosis isn't one huge epidemic, it's a collection of individual battles fought every day,"

Since 2010, the cinematography team has made three film series about TB and another on HIV. Jakiwe's story falls under their latest project, "The Human Spirit." Launched in September, it looks at the wide spectrum of people fighting TB: patients, health workers and policymakers. Next month, the team will travel to Geneva to interview Lucica Ditiu, the director of Stop TB, a United Nations-backed initiative. [DOES THIS NEED TO BE CHANGED — HAVE THEY ALREADY DONE THE INTERVIEW?]

Smith set up Visual Epidemiology as a grad student at Yale. To examine the spread of TB and HIV in South Africa, he spent hours interviewing patients. The end result of his labors was typically a chart that got buried inside a scientific journal. But Smith learned that behind each data point is a person, a family, a community and a story.

Smith's first film, an hour-long documentary called They Go To Die, explored migrant mining in South Africa. For decades, millions have left their homes and journeyed across the countryside to work in contract mines. They live in cramped, dormitory-style quarters — hotbeds for airborne diseases like TB. South African gold mine workers have the highest rate of TB in the world — 7,000 cases per 100,000 — 28 times the World Health Organization's bar for a declared emergency and 1,400 times the rate in Western countries. At the same time, HIV is also rampant, infecting nearly three of four workers. Miners who become sick lose their contracts and must return home.

"That's referred to be as "being sent home to die" because there is very little infrastructure for care where they live," says Smith. They Go To Die follows four men, sick with TB, on their journey home — and how one of them was able to survive..

The full-length version [HOW LONG IS IT?] of They Go To Die toured 28 British cities in 2013, while Story of a Girl, which traces the experience of women living with HIV, will be featured at this year's Sheffield Doc Fest, the UK's biggest documentary festival. Stateside the Albany Film Fest has accepted Story of a Girl.

The team also creates short films for global health institutes that want to add human voices to their presentations.

It takes weeks to produce even the shortest of films. But none of the six-person staff, including Smith, draw a salary. The team mainly works during off hours at home and when conducting studies in the field. Occasional grants fund travel and equipment. So this is a case where the clich – "labor of love" – really does ring true.

Phumeza Tisile: Hear No Evil from Visual Epidemiology on Vimeo.

tuberculosis

South Africa

HIV