Meat, vegetables: Our foods, our poison

Every year, more Nigerians die because of abuse of antibiotics in livestock farming and certain agrochemicals in growing vegetables, Weekend Trust gathered.   It was learnt that the residues of the chemicals get into meat, vegetables and egg, making consumers to develop immunity against medicines for treating common sicknesses.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said over 64,500 Nigerians died in 2019 due to direct abuse of antibiotic drugs use in livestock, crop production and indiscriminate prescription in the health system resulting in antimicrobial resistance.

Antimicrobials are medicines used to prevent and treat infectious diseases in humans, animals and plants.

Weekend Trust gathered that farmers indiscriminately administer antibiotics to animals to prevent or control certain diseases and do not allow for withdrawal period before selling their meat, eggs, milk or fish to consumers.

The consumption of these products with antibiotic residues, causes consumers to build resistance to antimicrobial drugs used in treating common diseases resulting in the deaths of many people, it was further gathered.

The Minister of Livestock Development, Alhaji Idi Mukhtar Maiha, in Abuja last week said lack of implementation of good food practices, self-medication and poor awareness worsen the situation.

“Within the agricultural and food resources sector, a critical factor that promotes antimicrobial resistance is the slaughter, sale and consumption of animals treated with antimicrobials without observance of withdrawal period. The result is the presence of residues in food of animals’ origin such as meat, fish, eggs and milk.

“It has also been reported that unregulated application of antibiotics and pesticides on crops during cultivation and post-harvest preservations stages can predispose to residues in these products,” the minister said.

Experts from the World Health Organisation, Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, environment, NCDC and the private sector, during the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, which ended on Monday 24, in Abuja, warned that the situation is getting worse.

Dr Laxmikant Chavan, Technical and Coordinator for One Health, WHO Nigeria, while speaking at the One Health AMR awareness meeting at the Ministry of Livestock Development in Abuja last week described the situation in the country as a matter of “urgency.”

“In Nigeria, we also have multi-drug resistance, pan-drug resistance, and all those extreme drug resistance, AMR pathogens detected in Nigeria. So, when you say pan-drug resistance, those pathogens or those organisms are not responding to any antibiotics which are available in the country. So, that is a serious issue.

“We also have a lot of outbreaks happening in hospitals and in communities, which is also a concern. Just a quick figure, in Nigeria, since 1990, almost 60,000 people are getting killed or they are dying yearly due to AMR,” he said.

Chavan, who is an expert in epidemiology and public health, also said that research in 2021 indicated that almost 227,000 of deaths were due to only bacterial AMR.

“I am not talking about the fungal AMR. I am not talking about the other types of AMR, antiviral and you know, parasitic, all those AMR. I am just talking only about bacterial AMR and that number is very high.

“So, this is an urgency; these projections are not very good. And that requires the whole of government and society approach.

“We need to urgently integrate AMR with primary health care. We need to link with our broader sector-wide approach. We need to link AMR with food security and the climate change initiatives which are happening in the country,” he warned.

The WHO epidemiologist further warned that children from five years of age and adults from 60 and above are even more at risk of AMR deaths.

Experts have pointed out that many farmers who raise animals and cultivate crops do not understand enough about how antimicrobials can become resistant. They said the farmers also misuse and overuse these medicines.

The One Health document signed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security,  the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Federal Ministry of Environment showed that Nigeria is number 19 of 204 countries with the highest age-standardised mortality rate per 100,000 population associated with antimicrobial resistance.

“In 2019, there were 64,500 deaths attributable to AMR and 263,400 deaths associated with AMR, making the number of AMR deaths in Nigeria; higher than those from enteric infections, respiratory infections and tuberculosis, maternal and neonatal disorders, neglected tropical diseases and malaria, and cardiovascular diseases.

“However, this is likely underestimated considering the gaps that exist in national AMR surveillance,” according to NCDC One Health document.

The World Health Organisation Dashboard said antimicrobial resistance “puts many of the gains of modern medicine at risk. It makes infections harder to treat and makes other medical procedures and treatments – such as surgery, caesarean sections and cancer chemotherapy – much riskier.

“The world faces an antibiotics pipeline and access crisis. There is an inadequate research and development pipeline in the face of rising levels of resistance, and urgent need for additional measures to ensure equitable access to new and existing vaccines, diagnostics and medicines,” he said.

Dr  Bala. Muhammed, who is a practicing veterinary surgeon with over 26 years experience in livestock production and CEO of BlueBlood Vet Clinic in Abuja, told Weekend Trust that Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is no longer a looming threat — it is endemic in Nigeria, undermining health security, economies and lives.

“Surveillance and studies show alarmingly high resistance: many common bacterial pathogens display resistance rates often above 50% to traditional first-line antibiotics drugs,” he said adding that “ineffective treatments prolong illness, increase mortality and inflate costs for families and the health system.”

The veterinary surgeon attributed the situation to inappropriate antibiotic use in humans and animals, poor infection prevention, limited laboratory capacity and weak antimicrobial stewardship.

“For instance, Fluoroquinolone resistance in Escherichia coli ranges from 30–70% across surveys; third-generation cephalosporin resistance among E. coli and Klebsiella often exceeds 40–60%; hospital MRSA prevalence has been reported between 20–50%, while Carbapenem resistance, once rare, is increasingly detected,’ he explained.

He said the Nigeria’s National Action Plan was a vital roadmap, but urgent scaled investment is needed to expand laboratory networks, enforce prescription regulations, strengthen One Health surveillance, and fund public education.

“Every stakeholder — government, clinicians, farmers, pharmacists and citizens — must act now to preserve effective medicines. Without decisive, coordinated action, AMR will continue to steal health and hope from current and future generations. In addition, support for disease and, AMR surveillance, research, and community engagement is essential to cub the menace of AMR,” he said.

Dr. Solomon Olorunleke of the Food and Agriculture organization in Abuja said AMR remains a significant threat to Nigeria’s agriculture and food systems, public health, and national development.

He said immediate and coordinated efforts are essential to protect and ensure the future. This involves prioritising food safety, safeguarding livelihoods, and establishing sustainable food systems for future generations.

“Nigeria has a vast livestock industry that plays a vital role in ensuring food security, supporting rural livelihoods, and driving economic growth. However, disease pressures and misuse of antimicrobials contribute to the rising AMR risk. Strengthening good health boundary practices, vaccination, biosecurity, and responsible antimicrobial use is essential to enhancing productivity while preventing the emergence and spread of resistant pathogens across the livestock value chain,” he said.

Globally, the World Bank estimates that AMR could result in US$ 1 trillion additional healthcare costs by 2050, and US$ 1 trillion to US$ 3.4 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) losses per year by 2030.

Drug-resistance

Data from the NCDC shows the escalating problem of antibiotic resistance represents a grave danger, as it diminishes the effectiveness of commonly used antibiotics against widespread bacterial infections. A 2022 report from the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) underscores alarming levels of resistance among prevalent bacterial pathogens.

Drug-resistant parasites pose a significant threat to malaria control efforts, the report added. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the preferred first-line treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria, and they are widely employed by countries with endemic malaria.

Dr. China Joe, chairperson of the Nigeria Veterinary Medical Association (NVMA), FCT chapter emphasised the need for increased awareness and education among all stakeholders, including agricultural practitioners. This, she said, is crucial to prevent practices that threaten public health.

“Let’s go to the farmers. Let’s go everywhere we think we can take this message to. And if we can do that, I bet you we’ll stop running out of time. So, all of us that are involved in this One Health thing, let’s come together and take this message to the appropriate quarters and I tell you we will have food safety, food security, and healthier meat and whatever you can think of,” she said.

Speaking on the issues of awareness, Dr Olorunleke said it is critical to cut the projected 39 million deaths attributed to AMR, adding that “why are we pushing all of the efforts to create awareness? It’s because we want to reduce this number, because it has been projected that a great proportion of this number of attributed deaths to AMR will actually be in low and medium income countries, which includes Nigeria.”

Dr Chinyere Ijeoma Akujobi, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, who spoke at the opening of awareness week during a technical session, stressed the importance of establishing a taskforce to oversee the circulation of antibiotics banned for animal use.

She emphasised that antimicrobial resistance poses an existential threat, noting its alarming rate of growth, which impacts humans, animals, plants, and food safety. In Nigeria, she said, “the escalating resistance rates are diminishing our capacity to treat common infections that were previously easily curable”.

Dr. Akujobi, a veterinarian with extensive field experience, emphasised the need for government intervention to address the misuse of antibiotics in farming and their unsupervised use.

She emphasised the necessity of curbing the misuse of antibiotics by implementing regulations that penalise such practices. She highlighted that any substances introduced, whether from animals or drugs, particularly when drug regulations are not followed, can cause problems. Specifically, she stressed that antibiotics should only be used as prescribed by certified medical professionals for the full duration of the treatment.

The Permanent Secretary said that using antibiotics carelessly, which is not allowed in some places, is very bad for both people and animals. This, according to her, is because bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics.

“This means that antibiotics won’t work as well in the future, both for treating illnesses in people and animals. When bacteria become resistant, it can cause big problems for public health”, she added.

What farmers use antibiotics for

A research conducted on 58 poultry farms, which were randomly surveyed from the four geo-political zones of Ogun State, published in the Journal of Veterinary Service showed that all the 58 (100%) poultry farms used one or more antibiotics.

The study found that antibiotics were commonly administered either for therapy (36.2%), prophylaxis (29.3%), or both (32.8%) and to a lesser extent for growth promotion (6.9%).

It also found that NeocerylR (a commercially prepared broad spectrum antibiotic consisting of Neomycin, Erythromycin, Oxytetracycline, Streptomycin and Colistin), Enrofloxacin and Furazolidone, were the commonest antibiotics used in the study area.

In addition to 70.7% of multi-drug usage practices (MDUP), 33 distinct patterns of antibiotic usage were noted across the chicken farms. According to this survey, only 50% of veterinarians administer antibiotics to commercial farms.

Farmers use antibiotics for three broad reasons:  Either for therapy (caring for the animal), prophylaxis (treatment given or action taken to prevent disease) or growth enhancement (to accelerate the growth of the livestock).

For crops, some of the pesticides used in the preservation or control of pest on vegetable contain active ingredients that contribute to antimicrobial resistance.

For example, studies showed that exposure to Cypermethrin, which is a widely used pesticide disturbs the microbiome and disseminates antibiotic resistance genes in soil.

Access

Most of these antibiotics are accessible to farmers who buy and administer on the livestock by themselves.

A 2022 study in Nigeria published in an  International Journal of Agribusiness discovered that antibiotic usage for nontherapeutic purposes was quickly rising among small farms (already over 60% for those with 50-100 birds) and growing among medium and large poultry farmers (75%-95%) in both Nigerian cities and villages.

The study found that while larger farms are likely to use antibiotics; small farmers use them more indiscriminately.

Benedict Agbo is a small livestock farmer who raises chicken specifically for festive periods in Akwanga, Nasarawa State. He said he gives the chicken antibiotics three times in a day if he suspects they are not well.

“Who has money to go and call a doctor for chickens? He asked. This is something we have been doing. If you want them to grow fast you give them a ‘booster’ and some vitamins. So depending on what you want, there are drugs for different purposes,” he said.

But Mr Agbo does not have any idea if the drugs that he uses may pose a serious threat to human health. He said, “these are meant for the chicken and to help them grow well and fat. They cannot harm human beings because it is the chickens that take them.”

Mama Ashe is also another smallholder poultry farmer in Lamingo area of Jos. She admitted using antibiotics for her small flock of birds, adding that “without those drugs, the chicken will die. I put it in water for them to drink daily until they are very strong”.

Like Agbo, she too does not know the ingredients in those drugs and if it has any implication on the health of the people.

A fish farmer in Dutse, Yakubu Bala, told our correspondent that he uses “booster” to make sure his fish grow well, fast and big.

One of the antibiotics, Bambermycin, is used only as a growth-promoting antibacterial in animal feeds.

In 2018, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) prohibited the use of antibiotics (growth promoters and mould inhibitors) in animal feed.

The Assistant Director and Head, Animal Feed and Premix Division, Veterinary Medicine and Allied Products, NAFDAC, Dr Tunde Sigbeku, stated that,  “Nigeria has seen a rise in diseases such as kidney failure and cancer in humans due to the fact that the veterinary drug residues are ending up in the food chain for human consumption. There is an issue with people in Nigeria failing to read labels on antibiotics that show the dosage and method, and who also fail to consult professionals before using certain additives in animal feeds.”

Common antibiotics used in livestock farming

Common antibiotics used in poultry farming include Tetracycline, Colistin, Ciprofloxacin, Tylosin, Neomycin, Amoxicillin, Trimethoprim, Sulfonamides, Doxycycline, Erythromycin, and Tiamulin among others.

Every antibiotic has a distinct “withdrawal period,” which is the amount of time a livestock farmer must wait following an antibiotic treatment before the animal or its produce is allowed to be consumed.

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