Update: Catch the preview and part 2 here.
Here is part 1 of the Katie Couric’s CBS Evening News report on antibiotic use in livestock. She pulled no punches. This first segment focused on poultry processing facilities in Batesville, Ark. and drug-resistant MRSA. As in the preview, Couric explicitly discussed the possibility of transmitting disease through the handling of meat.
Couric, managing the feat of getting herself inside a pig factory farm, also spoke to the head vet at the National Pork Board who denied outright that antibiotics are routinely given to livestock as she suggested the “vast majority” of farmers use antibiotics responsibiy. The FDA’s number two official Joshua Sharfstein made a cameo appearance suggesting a need for tracking the use of antibiotics in livestock, but not calling for an outright ban, as he did in Congressional testimony earlier this year.
The report concluded with an explicit linkage between use of antibiotics and cheap meat along with instructions from Couric on how to ensure the meat you buy has been raised without antibiotics. Part 2 is tonight.
