The truth about antibiotics and meat hormones

“The meat we buy does not have hormones or antibiotics, despite the fact that many people continue to believe otherwise and it is still necessary to teach about it.” These are the words of Anna Romagosa, a farm veterinarian and member of the governing board of the Col·legi de Veterinaris de Barcelona. However, there are many people who do not know it or do not quite believe it, “so it is common for those of us who work in direct contact with the farms and with the producers to find ourselves forced to clarify it very often, since we are told They ask a lot.”

There are several reasons why many people either do not know that the meat we eat is, by law, free of hormones or they do not quite believe it and think that there must be a cat locked up somewhere. “It is true that until the 1980s the health authorities allowed the use of certain types of hormones in animals, but this legislation was eliminated in the 1990s. However, there are many who today do not take these changes into account in the regulations”, explains the veterinarian, who assures that “certain television programs and biased information have not helped much to clarify the matter, but rather have contributed to confuse consumers even more”.

For his part, the president of the Col·legi de Veterinaris de Barcelona, ​​Ricard Parés, affirms that “the clenbuterol crisis, well known, still remains in the memory of many people, even though this substance has been banned for decades” . Clenbuterol is a synthetic drug indicated for the treatment of respiratory diseases due to its bronchodilator effect. However, given its anabolic effects, it was also used for a long time to accelerate the development of cattle. In 1995, the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) filed a complaint for an alleged multiple intoxication by clenbuterol, which affected some 150 consumers, against farmers in the Community of Madrid. For Parés, “it is an episode that many people are very aware of and, although current legislation prohibits supplying clenbuterol to cattle intended for human consumption, it is true that it is difficult to turn the page.”

Despite the fact that there are some countries in which clenbuterol is used clandestinely, this is not the case in EU countries, where legislation and controls are very strict, so much so that non-compliance has criminal consequences. To give an example, according to research carried out by scientists from the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, published in the Veterinary Medicine Journal, “in Mexico, in an illegal and clandestine way, there is distribution, commercialization and use of clenbuterol. However, the work of livestock organizations to register production units free of this substance will guarantee the consumption of meat products.” The same is not the case in Spain or the rest of the EU countries, “where we find what is possibly the strictest legislation in the world in this regard, since in addition to periodic controls on farms and control by the administrations of There are also records of everything supplied to the cattle at the slaughterhouse and, of course, prior to consumption”, explains Parés.

The vet explains that in other countries, such as the United States, “the use of certain hormones is allowed, always in adjusted doses that do not affect human health in any way, which is not the case in Europe.” For Parés, this may be another of the reasons why many consumers still believe that hormonal cattle is our daily bread on Spanish farms. For his part, Romagosa explains that it is not really necessary to do so either, “since today we have very productive animals with very good growth.” The veterinarian insists that “hormone control systems are so tight that if someone failed to comply with them, they would be committing a public health crime, which would have to be resolved through criminal proceedings.”

The veterinarian also points out that fraud is impossible taking into account the number of control channels that farmers face. “On the one hand, there are the veterinarians who work on farms, who must notify the administration of the supply of any medication, but there are also those who work in slaughterhouses and the administration’s own veterinarians,” she points out. Therefore, there are many filters that must be passed to guarantee that the meat we consume reaches supermarket shelves not only free of hormones, but also free of antibiotics, another hoax that circulates among consumers and that is also difficult to eradicate. .

Everything has been said about meat and antibiotics, among other things that human resistance to these has decreased precisely because we are consuming them without realizing it in the meat we eat. It is false, since the use of antibiotics is regulated by law and the legislation establishes controls so that meat or dairy products that reach the market have already eliminated any traces of antibiotics in the blood. This is explained by Carmela Cano, manager of the Galmesán artisan cheese factory, in Arzúa (A Coruña): “To all the controls that are established in the cattle before the milk with which we make our cheeses arrives, we must add a final analysis , which is what we carry out in the cheese factory itself to check if there are traces of antibiotics. Residues have only been found on one occasion, so that milk is automatically discarded and in no case does it reach consumers.”

Parés, for his part, indicates that in veterinary medicine the use of antibiotics in cattle follows the same guidelines that should be applied to humans in general medicine. “The maxim in Europe is that antibiotics should be used whenever necessary, but as little as possible. Furthermore, the preventive use of antibiotics is prohibited, contrary to what some people believe”. The veterinarian insists that “when there is a disease that requires the use of antibiotics, our role is to treat it to guarantee animal welfare, exactly as it happens with humans, but in no case are they supplied indiscriminately.” In addition, all the antibiotics that are indicated have an established period of elimination, so that “the farmers themselves already know that they must wait a certain number of days before taking the animal to the slaughterhouse if they have been given antibiotics.”

“The meat that reaches consumers is completely free of residues, so that the population can rest easy. There are many people who buy organic meats for ideological reasons and animal welfare, or because they prioritize eating local products, but in no case should the argument be that these meats are not contaminated, because none is”, concludes Parés.