WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to decide once and for all whether states can ban gay marriage, a surprising move that will allow gay men and women to get married in five additional states, with more likely to follow quickly.
On the first day of its new term, the high court without comment rejected appeals in cases involving five states - Virginia, Oklahoma, Utah, Wisconsin and Indiana - that had prohibited gay marriage, leaving intact lower-court rulings striking down those bans.
As a result, the number of states permitting gay marriage would jump from 19 to 24, likely soon to be followed by six more states that are bound by the regional federal appeals court rulings that had struck down other bans. That would leave another 20 states that prohibit same-sex marriage.
But the move by the nine justices to sidestep the contentious issue means there will be no imminent national ruling on the matter, with litigation likely to continue in states with bans.
"Any time same-sex couples are extended marriage equality is something to celebrate, and today is a joyous day for thousands of couples across America who will immediately feel the impact of today's Supreme Court action," said Chad Griffin, president of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign.
Evan Wolfson, who heads the group Freedom to Marry, said while Monday's action provided "a bright green light" to gay marriage in more states, gay rights advocates still want the high court to intervene and provide a definitive ruling covering all 50 states. "The Supreme Court should bring the country to a nationwide resolution," Wolfson said.
Officials in states whose bans were overturned had also wanted the high court to decide the matter. The justices could take up a future case, but their move on Monday could send a strong signal to lower court judges that rulings striking down gay marriage bans are consistent with the U.S. Constitution.
Gay couples in affected states are expected to seek marriage licenses immediately because the high court's action means the appeals court's rulings are no longer on hold. Virginia began issuing licenses within hours of the court's action.
The other states that are likely to be imminently affected are North Carolina, West Virginia, South Carolina, Wyoming, Kansas and Colorado.
NO EXPLANATION
The court did not explain why it was not taking up the issue. Among the possibilities are that a majority believes it would be premature to intervene and wants to see more lower court action, or that on this deeply polarized court neither the liberals nor the conservatives could be certain of how the issue would resolved and did not want to risk forcing a national precedent now.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has officiated at a same-sex wedding, said last month that for the justices there is "no need for us to rush" unless a split emerges in the regional federal appeals courts and one of them decides to uphold a state ban on gay marriage.
In order for the Supreme Court to hear a case, at least four of the nine justices must vote to hear it.
Most legal experts had believed the justices would want to weigh in on a question of national importance that focuses on whether the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal treatment under the law means gay marriage bans were unlawful.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that "there may ultimately be a role for the Supreme Court to play" on gay marriage and that the justices must make that call. Earnest emphasized that President Barack Obama's view is that "it's wrong to prevent same-sex couples who are in loving, committed relationships and want to marry from doing so."
Opponents of gay marriage said they would continue to defend state bans in court. "The people should decide this issue, not the courts," said Byron Babione, a lawyer with the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom.
In June 2013, the justices ruled 5-4 to strike down a key part of a federal law called the Defense of Marriage Act that had restricted the definition of marriage to heterosexual couples for the purpose of federal government benefits.
But in a separate case decided that day, the justices also sidestepped the broader question of whether state bans violated the Constitution, but allowed gay marriage in California.
The momentum within America's courts in favor of gay marriage reflects a sea-change in public opinion in the past decade, with polls showing a steady increase in support. It was only as recently as 2004 that Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriage following a state court ruling.
State officials defending their bans say the Constitution does not dictate how states should define marriage and that there is no deeply rooted legal tradition that supports a right to gay marriage.
When the nine justices ascended their mahogany bench at 10 a.m., they betrayed no concern for the possible uncertainty or confusion arising from their orders rejecting the same-sex marriage cases. Proceeding with the usual practice, Chief Justice John Roberts announced only that "orders have been duly entered and certified" and were on file with the clerk's office.
The justices then heard an hour of arguments in a case involving a police search.
(Additional reporting by Joan Biskupic in Washington, Heide Brandes in Oklahoma City and Marti Anne Maguire in Raleigh, North Carolina)
MURSITPINAR Turkey (Reuters) - Street fighting raged between Kurdish defenders and Islamic State militants who advanced into Kobani on Monday after subjecting the Syrian border town to an assault lasting almost three weeks, residents and fighters said.
Islamic State had earlier raised its black flag over a building in the outskirts and forced thousands more of Kobani's mainly Kurdish inhabitants to flee for their lives across the nearby border into Turkey.
The head of the Kurdish forces defending the town said late on Monday that Islamic State forces were 300 meters inside Kobani's eastern district and were shelling the remaining neighborhoods.
"We either die or win. No fighter is leaving," Esmat al-Sheikh, leader of the Kobani Defense Authority, told Reuters. "The world is watching, just watching and leaving these monsters to kill everyone, even children...but we will fight to the end with what weapons we have."
Islamic State wants to take Kobani to consolidate a dramatic sweep across northern Iraq and Syria, in the name of an absolutist version of Sunni Islam, that has sent shockwaves through the Middle East.
Strikes by American and Gulf state warplanes have failed to halt Islamic State's advance on the town, which it has besieged from three sides and pounded with heavy artillery.
Forced to flee Kobani by the latest fighting, frightened residents crossed into Turkey through Yumurtalik, an improvised border crossing, and ambulances with blaring sirens shuttled back and forth between the Syrian town and Turkey.
"We can hear the sound of clashes on the street," Parwer Ali Mohamed, a translator for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Reuters by phone as he fled. "More than 2,000 people including women and children are being evacuated. Turkish police are checking our luggage now."
A black flag belonging to Islamic State was visible from across the Turkish border atop a four-storey building close to the scene of some of the fiercest clashes in recent days.
Mortars have rained down on residential areas of Kobani, and stray fire has hit Turkish territory frequently in recent days wounding people and damaging houses.
Islamic State also fought intense battles over the weekend for control of Mistanour, a strategic hill overlooking Kobani. A video released by the group on Sunday appeared to show its fighters in control of radio masts on the summit, but the footage could not be independently confirmed.
Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party called for street demonstrations in Turkey to protest at Islamic State's assault on Kobani, where the situation was "extremely critical".
Militants also carried out two suicide attacks in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah, the Observatory said, killing at least 30 people.
"The attacks targeted checkpoints run by Kurdish fighters on the western entrance of the city. They occurred within minutes of each other," Abdelrahman said.
ONCE A HAVEN
Until recently, Kobani had hardly been touched by the civil war that has ravaged much of Syria, and even offered a haven for refugees from fighting elsewhere, as President Bashar al-Assad chose to let the Kurdish population have virtual autonomy.
But beheadings, mass killings and torture have spread fear of Islamic State across the region, with villages emptying at its approach and an estimated 180,000 people fleeing into Turkey from the Kobani region.
On Sunday, a female Kurdish fighter blew herself up rather than be captured by Islamic State after running out of ammunition, local sources and a monitoring group reported.
Turkish hospitals have been treating a steady stream of wounded Kurdish fighters being brought across the frontier.
Witnesses who had fled Kobani said that old women were being given grenades to throw, and young women with no combat experience were being armed and sent into battle.
Speaking last week, the co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) told Reuters that Islamic State had brought large parts of its arsenal from its de facto capital at Raqqa, 140 km to the southeast, to the assault on Kobani.
"We are happy about the U.S. air strikes," Aysa Abdullah said. "But really, this is not enough. We need more air strikes to be effective against (Islamic State) weapons, to eradicate and destroy (them)."
In neighboring Iraq, the U.S. military said it had flown Apache helicopters against Islamic State rebels for the first time, striking mortar teams and other units near the western town of Fallujah.
APPEAL TO TURKEY
On Monday, Kurdish politicians confirmed that the PYD's other co-chair, Saleh Muslim, had met Turkish officials to urge them to allow weapons into Kobani from Turkey.
Turkey has so far made no move to join the fight against Islamic State close to its borders, beyond returning fire at Islamic State fighters in response to mortar shells landing on Turkish territory.
Over the weekend, President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to retaliate if Islamic State attacked Turkish forces, and on Monday Turkish tanks deployed along the border for the second time in a week, some with guns pointing towards Syria, apparently in response to stray fire.
Still, Islamic State's release last month of 46 Turkish hostages, and a parliamentary motion last week allowing Turkish troops to cross into Syria and Iraq, have raised expectations that Ankara may be planning a more active role.
But Ankara is wary of helping Syrian Kurdish forces near Kobani as they have strong links with the PKK, which the Turkish state fought for three decades.
(Additional reporting by Hamdi Istanbullu in Mursitpinar, Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Ayla Jean Yackley and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; Writing by Jonny Hogg and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Giles Elgood and Dominic Evans)
The nurse treated two Spanish priests who both died of the virus Investigations are under way at a hospital in Madrid after a Spanish nurse became the first person known to have contracted the deadly Ebola virus outside west Africa.
The nurse had treated two Spanish missionaries who died of the disease after being flown home from the region.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has announced plans to screen passengers flying to the United States.
Some 3,400 people have died in the outbreak - mostly in West Africa.
Barack Obama criticised foreign governments for not acting "as aggressively as they need to" against the outbreak.
"Countries that think that they can sit on the sidelines and just let the United States do it, that will result in a less effective response, a less speedy response, and that means that people die.
"And it also means that the potential spread of the disease beyond these areas in West Africa becomes more imminent," Mr Obama said.
First case The 40-year-old nurse was part of the Madrid team that treated Spanish priests Manuel Garcia Viejo and Miguel Pajares, who both died of the virus, Spanish officials say.
Media caption Burial teams in Sierra Leone are having to scramble over fresh graves to lay bodies to rest, as Tulip Mazumdar reports The hospital Carlos III de Madrid where the priests were treated is reported to have had extreme protective measures in place including two sets of overalls, gloves and goggles.
The nurse is in a stable condition and has been moved from the Alcorcon hospital to a specialised unit at the Carlos III hospital. The other members of the medical team are being monitored.
Manuel Garcia Viejo, seen in a file photo, was the second Spanish priest to be repatriated from Africa with Ebola Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, died on 25 September after catching Ebola in Sierra Leone.
Miguel Pajares, 75, died in August after contracting the virus in Liberia.
The nurse began to feel unwell on 30 September, but only sought medical advice on Sunday.
Critical but stable The likelihood of an Ebola outbreak in the US was "extremely low", President Obama said on Monday, but "we don't have a lot of margin of error".
Dr Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has ruled out banning flights to the US from countries suffering the outbreak, arguing the isolation would only worsen the outbreak within Africa and would deny those countries crucial aid.
Ebola spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has the virus and the only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate those who are infected.
There have been nearly 7,500 confirmed infections worldwide, with officials saying the figure is likely to be much higher in reality.
Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have been hardest hit.
Thomas Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the US, is being treated at a Dallas hospital in isolation. He caught the virus in his native Liberia. Mr Duncan's condition is critical but stable, doctors said on Monday.
He has been given Brincidofovir, a new experimental drug for treating Ebola which was developed in North Carolina.
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 70% Incubation period is two to 21 days
There is no proven vaccine or cure Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus's natural host
Gatlin ran the fastest ever 100m and 200m times by a man in his thirties this summer Convicted dope cheats such as sprinter Justin Gatlin could still be benefiting from having taken banned substances long after their bans have expired.
Research by University of Oslo (external) scientists has established that muscles can retain the advantages given by anabolic steroids decades after the point at which they were taken.
The data casts another shadow over once-banned athletes such as controversial US athlete Gatlin, Tyson Gay - the second fastest man in history - and Britain's Dwain Chambers.
This summer, 32-year-old Gatlin ran the fastest ever 100m and 200m times by a man in his thirties despite twice having served suspensions.
The study has vast implications for the existing anti-doping system, where a first-time offender is unlikely to be suspended for more than two years and may well serve less than half that.
Kristian Gundersen, Professor of Physiology at the University of Oslo, told BBC Sport: "I think it is likely that effects could be lifelong or at least lasting decades in humans.
"Our data indicates the exclusion time of two years is far too short. Even four years is too short."
The performances of Gatlin - 2004 Olympic 100m gold medallist and double sprint world champion in 2005, who was banned for four years from 2006 to 2010 - have caused disquiet in the athletics world all year.
Dai Greene, Britain's 2011 400m hurdles world champion, told BBC Sport: "He's over the hill as far as sprinting is concerned - he should never be running these times for the 100m and 200m.
"But he's still doing it, and you have to look at his past, and ask how it is still affecting him now, because the average person wouldn't be able to do that."
Gatlin ran 9.85 secs in winning the 100m gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics This summer Gatlin ran six of the seven fastest 100m times in the world, and in Brussels completed the fastest ever one-day sprint double, clocking 9.77 seconds for the 100m an hour before running the 200m in 19.71.
Greene said: "Those are incredible performances. Not many people have run that fast separately, ever. To do it on a damp Friday night? I couldn't believe those times.
"It shows one of two things: either he's still taking performance-enhancing drugs to get the best out of him at his advanced age, or the ones he did take are still doing a fantastic job.
"Because there is no way he can still be running that well at this late point in his career.
"After having years on the sidelines, being unable to train or compete, it doesn't really add up - 9.77 is an incredibly fast time. You only have to look at his performances. I don't believe in them."
Top 100m times in 2014 1. Justin Gatlin9.77Brussels (5 September) 2. Justin Gatlin9.80Lausanne (3 July) 3. Justin Gatlin9.82Port of Spain (21 June) 4. Richard Thompson9.82Linz (14 July) 5. Justin Gatlin9.83Rieti (7 September) 6. Justin Gatlin9.86Ostrava (17 June) 7. Justin Gatlin9.87Beijing (21 May)
Gundersen's team studied the effect of steroids on female mice, but he is convinced both that the same mechanism is at work in human muscles and that other performance-enhancing drugs would have similar long-term benefits.
He said: "I would be very surprised if there were any major differences between humans and mice in this context.
"The fundamental biology of muscle growth is similar in humans and in mice, and in principle any drug that builds muscle mass could trigger this mechanism.
"I was excited by the clarity of the findings. It's very rare, at least in my experience, that the data are so clear cut; there is usually some disturbing factor. But in this case it was extremely clear.
"If you exercise, or take anabolic steroids, you get more nuclei and you get bigger muscles. If you take away the steroids, you lose the muscle mass, but the nuclei remain inside the muscle fibres.
Olympic discus champion Robert Harting has asked to be removed from the IAAF's male athletes of the year nomination list in protest at Gatlin's inclusion "They are like temporarily closed factories, ready to start producing protein again when you start exercising again."
Gatlin, unbeaten all year, has not tested positive since returning to the sport in 2011 following a four-year ban.
He was originally handed an eight-year suspension (he had previously tested positive in 2001) which was cut in half by an arbitration panel.
But Gatlin's nomination this weekend as one of the IAAF's male athletes of the year has triggered anger in the sport, with another nominee, Germany's Olympic discus champion Robert Harting, asking for his own name to be removed from the list in protest.
In November 2013, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) approved stricter punishments for athletes found guilty of doping, doubling bans to four years from January 2015.
A first major offence had carried a two-year ban, with athletes banned for life if they tested positive again.
Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones were among eight athletes coached by Trevor Graham who were banned for doping Wada was unavailable for comment when contacted by the BBC.
Formerly coached by Trevor Graham, now banned for life after eight of his athletes - including Olympic champion Marion Jones and world record holder Tim Montgomery - were banned for doping, Gatlin is now trained by Dennis Mitchell, himself banned for two years as an athlete for taking testosterone.
His agent Renaldo Nehemiah told BBC Sport: "Justin would have run these times, and faster, had his over-zealous coach Trevor Graham not tried to get him there sooner than he would've naturally gotten there. "So, what Justin is doing right now, I'm not surprised by that.
"His body is rested for four years, so he wasn't racing. And he was the talent that I always knew he was.
"It's between the rest, and the talent that he always had, and the determination to prove everyone wrong, to prove that he was always this good."
Nehemiah, one of the great sprint hurdlers in his younger days as well as a wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, said: "You can do a study - I always say that if you have an argument you can find any panel of experts to support that argument, and then I can find a panel to dispute it, I'm sure.
"I say to Justin: 'Listen, some people will never forgive you. Forgiveness isn't a part of their make-up, their DNA. This is a part of maybe your legacy that you will never overcome, because of what decisions you made years ago."
Listen to a 5 live Sport special on Justin Gatlin from 20.30-22:00 BST on Tuesday, 7 October. Visit the 'In Short' page of the 5 live website for more details
The world-famous producer and rapper popped the question to Minaj in front of millions of MTV viewers on Thursday, complete with a $500,000 radiant-cut diamond ring.
"Nicki Minaj, I'm at MTV. I love you. I like you. I want you. I want you to be mine. I'm here at MTV because it's a worldwide network," he said via video. "Only reason I'm not telling you this face to face is because I understand that you're busy. Ima be honest with you, I wanna marry you."
Just when viewers thought Khaled's video was a prank, he pulled out the rock. "Nicki Minaj, will you marry me? We got the same symptoms, we both suffer from success. You out there touring, you're out there hustling, you're out there making music and you're out there winning. And I understand."
He continued, "That's why I feel like you need a man like me in your life that's gonna take care of you and respect you," he explained. "If you have to take your time and think about it, I overstand. But I know I have to be here today to let you know how serious I am and how serious this is to me. I want to let your fans know, my fans know, my family, your family, that I want to marry you."
Nicki has yet to comment on the Suffering From Success producer's proposal, but we imagine her man Safaree Samuels has a lot to say about it.
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Ever wondered if the rumour that Ramsey Noah and Genevieve Nnaji once dated is true? Nigeria's finest actor clears the air on that. He also talks about the time when a crazy fan stalked him at his home in front of his wife, and claimed to be sent by God. Watch the exclusive interview with Emma Emerson of Golden Icons after the cut...
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Two protesters set up shop outside The Mrs. Carter Show at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. warning Mrs Obama and other concert goers that Beyonce and Jay Z were possessed by demons.
Founder of the Pray at the Pump movement, Rocky Twyman, tells Washington/story.htm?storyid=79300#.Ufm7cWmegYA.twitter%20">Afro.com
"We believe that this couple is virtually destroying our youth. If you go on the Internet, you’ll see stories about how they’re both part of the Illuminati and you can see Jay-Z’s use of the Satanic triangle symbol when he performs."
"Jay-Z even declared himself to be God by referring to himself as Jehovah, and we don’t think that this is the image that our young people need to be glorifying.”
Tyman hopes his movement will catch on with protests in every city on the rest of Beyonce's tour.
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Miss Nigeria 2013, Ezinne Anyaoha paid a courtesy visit to the management of one of the largest advertising agencies in West Africa, Insight Communications. Ezinne pictured above with Insight MD, Mr. Jimi Awosika, Project Coordinator Miss Nigeria Organisation, Konnie Nnachetan-Agu, and Head Marketing Insight Communications, Franklin Ozekhone. More photos when you continue..
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THIS IS IT»#Beta pikin»unto matta»Songwriter, singer and producer, Harrysong joins the Five Star music roster as a recording artiste. Five Star music led by KCee and Harrysong wrapped up the details of the deal and put pen to paper only a few days ago.
'Beta Pikin' is not just Harrysong's first single on Five Star Music but a guarantee and radio friendly Afropop hit, Produced by Del B. On 'Beta Pikin,' Harrysong pulls a punch - fusing catchy lingo with almost perfect crooning.
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Gone are the days when socialites were well-dressed, Ivy League-educated, attended upper-crust parties and came from an affluent and influential family.
After releasing a shocking photo of herself, Miss Corazon is borrowing another leaf from Miss Karadshian’s book and has released what looks like her own reality show. In her Youtube Chanel,Corazon gives team Mafisi an eyeful of her booty full self.
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Major U.S. poultry firms are administering antibiotics to their flocks far more pervasively than regulators realize, posing a potential risk to human health.
Internal records examined by Reuters reveal that some of the nation’s largest poultry producers routinely feed chickens an array of antibiotics – not just when sickness strikes, but as a standard practice over most of the birds’ lives.
In every instance of antibiotic use identified by Reuters, the doses were at the low levels that scientists say are especially conducive to the growth of so-called superbugs, bacteria that gain resistance to conventional medicines used to treat people. Some of the antibiotics belong to categories considered medically important to humans.
The internal documents contain details on how five major companies - Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Perdue Farms, George’s and Koch Foods - medicate some of their flocks.
The documented evidence of routine use of antibiotics for long durations was “astonishing,” said Donald Kennedy, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner.
Kennedy, president emeritus of Stanford University, said such widespread use of the drugs for extended periods can create a “systematic source of antibiotic resistance” in bacteria, the risks of which are not fully understood. “This could be an even larger piece of the antibiotic-resistance problem than I had thought,” Kennedy said.
Reuters reviewed more than 320 documents generated by six major poultry companies during the past two years. Called “feed tickets,” the documents are issued to chicken growers by the mills that make feed to poultry companies’ specifications. They list the names and grams per ton of each “active drug ingredient” in a batch of feed. They disclose the FDA-approved purpose of each medication. And they specify which stage in a chicken’s roughly six-week life the feed is meant for.
The feed tickets examined represent a fraction of the tens of thousands issued annually to poultry farms run by or for major producers. The confidential information they contain nonetheless extends well beyond what the U.S. government knows. Veterinary use of antibiotics is legal and has been rising for decades. But U.S. regulators don’t monitor how the drugs are administered on the farm – in what doses, for what purposes, or for how long. Made public here for the first time, the feed documents thus provide unique insight into how some major players use antibiotics.
The tickets indicate that two of the poultry producers - George’s and Koch Foods - have administered drugs belonging to the same classes of antibiotics used to treat infections in humans. The practice is legal. But many medical scientists deem it particularly dangerous, because it runs the risk of promoting superbugs that can defeat the life-saving human antibiotics.
In interviews, another major producer, Foster Poultry Farms, acknowledged that it too has used drugs that are in the same classes as antibiotics considered medically important to humans by the FDA.
About 10 percent of the feed tickets reviewed by Reuters list antibiotics belonging to medically important drug classes. But in recent presentations, scientists with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the use of any type of antibiotic, not just medically important ones, contributes to resistance. They said that whenever an antibiotic is administered, it kills weaker bacteria and enables the strongest to survive and multiply.
Frequent, sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics in low doses intensifies that effect, scientists and public health experts say. The risk: Any resulting superbugs might also develop cross-resistance to medically important antibiotics.
According to the feed tickets reviewed, low doses of antibiotics were part of the standard diet for some flocks at five companies: Tyson, Pilgrim’s, Perdue, George’s and Koch.
“These are not targeted uses aimed at specific bugs for defined duration. They’re multiple, repeat shotgun blasts that will certainly kill off weaker bugs and promote the stronger, more resistant ones," said Keeve Nachman, director of the food production and public health program at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“HIGHLY IMPORTANT” DRUGS
This month, Perdue Farms announced that it had stopped applying the antibiotic gentamicin to eggs in chicken hatcheries. Gentamicin is a member of an antibiotic class considered “highly important” in human medicine by the FDA. The company said it wants “to move away from conventional antibiotic use” because of “growing consumer concern and our own questions about the practice.”
The move won’t change what Perdue feeds its chickens, however. Some of its feed has contained low levels of one antibiotic, feed tickets show. Perdue said it only uses antibiotics that aren’t considered medically important by the FDA, and at some farms, it uses no antibiotics at all.
The manner in which drugs are being given to poultry shows that “this could be an even larger piece of the antibiotic-resistance problem than I had thought.”
“We recognized that the public was concerned about the potential impact of the use of these drugs on their ability to effectively treat humans,” Bruce Stewart-Brown, Perdue’s senior vice president of food safety and quality, said when the hatchery policy was announced.
The poultry industry’s lobby takes issue with the concerns of government and academic scientists, saying there is little evidence that bacteria which do become resistant also infect people.
"Several scientific, peer reviewed risk assessments demonstrate that resistance emerging in animals and transferring to humans does not happen in measurable amounts, if at all," said Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council. He said using antibiotics to prevent diseases in flocks “is good, prudent veterinary medicine…. Prevention of the disease prevents unnecessary suffering and prevents the overuse of potentially medically important antibiotics in treatment of sick birds.”
Poultry producers began using antibiotics in the 1940s, not long after scientists discovered that penicillin, streptomycin and chlortetracycline helped control outbreaks of disease in chickens. The drugs offered an added benefit: They kept the birds’ digestive tracts healthy, and chickens were able to gain more weight without eating more food.
Over the years, the industry’s use of antibiotics grew. Early on, independent scientists warned that bacteria would inevitably develop resistance to those antibiotics, especially when the drugs were administered in low doses. In 1976, a landmark study by microbiologist Stuart Levy showed that potentially deadly bacteria in poultry were developing resistance to tetracyclines and other antibiotics. The resistant bacteria, E. Coli, were then moving from poultry to people.
That is when the FDA first tried to rein in drug use in food animals. The agricultural and pharmaceutical industries resisted, viewing low-level antibiotic use as a way to produce meat more quickly and cheaply.
Today, 80 percent of all antibiotics used in America are given not to people, but to livestock.
About 390 medications containing antibiotics have been approved to treat illness, stave off disease and promote growth in farm animals. But the FDA has reviewed just 7 percent of those drugs for their likelihood of creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs, aReuters data analysis found.
The widespread use of antibiotics worries public health authorities. In a report this year, the World Health Organization called antibiotic resistance “a problem so serious it threatens the achievements of modern medicine.” The annual cost to battle antibiotic-resistant infections is estimated at $21 billion to $34 billion in the United States alone, the WHO said.
Each year, about 430,000 people in the United States become ill from food-borne bacteria that resist conventional antibiotics, according to a July report by the CDC. Overall, the CDC estimates that 2 million people are sickened in the United States annually with infections resistant to antibiotics. At least 23,000 people die.
“That’s the number we are certain of. The actual number is higher,” said Steve Solomon, director of the CDC’s Office of Antimicrobial Resistance.
This year, federal investigators tracking a salmonella outbreak traced virulent strains of the pathogen to chickens raised by Foster Farms, the largest poultry producer on the West Coast.
Investigators identified seven strains of Salmonella Heidelberg that had sickened at least 634 people across the United States and Puerto Rico this year and last. More than 200 of those people were hospitalized, according to the CDC. In July, Foster Farms issued a recall of some chicken products.
When epidemiologists examined 68 of the Salmonella Heidelberg cases linked to Foster Farms, they found that two-thirds of the bacteria were resistant to at least one antibiotic, according to the CDC. Half of these superbugs were impervious to drugs in at least three different classes of antibiotics.
In an effort to stop the spread of resistant bacteria, the FDA has issued voluntary guidelines to regulate antibiotic use by producers of poultry and other livestock. The agency says it also inspects the mills where animal feed is made. It considers those inspections to be a “more effective” use of its resources than examining how farmers administer feed.
“These are not targeted uses aimed at specific bugs for defined duration. They’re multiple, repeat shotgun blasts that will certainly kill off weaker bugs and promote the stronger, more resistant ones.”
Not until 2016 does the FDA plan to gather data about antibiotic use on farms, said Craig Lewis, a veterinary medical officer with the agency. Today, “none of us have an idea first-hand of what’s going on” at the farm level, Lewis said this summer, at a public meeting on antibiotic resistance.
Super, the National Chicken Council spokesman, said the information on feed tickets “is available to FDA, the regulators, whenever they want to go see it.”
Still, companies are reluctant to discuss how they medicate their flocks.
One, Pilgrim’s Pride, said it would take legal action against Reuters unless the news agency gave the company access to Pilgrim’s feed tickets that reporters had reviewed. Reuters declined to do so.
The tickets show that Pilgrim’s added low doses of the antibiotics bacitracin and monensin, individually or in combination, to every ration fed to a flock grown early this year. Neither drug is classified as medically important by the FDA, although bacitracin commonly is used to prevent human skin infections.
The Colorado-based company wouldn’t address questions about its use of antibiotics. Its general counsel, Nicholas White, called the contents of its tickets “confidential business information.”
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, said the feed tickets substantiate what she long suspected: "that the overuse of antibiotics on many chicken farms is rampant.”
Gillibrand has been pushing for regulators to more aggressively monitor low-level doses of antibiotics. Now, Gillibrand said, she hopes “the FDA will use the feed-ticket data obtained by Reuters as a wake-up call to re-evaluate their approach to the regulation of antibiotic use in food production.”
So does Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, a member of a House subcommittee overseeing food safety. Told of the information in the feed tickets, DeLauro called on the FDA to “implement tighter restrictions on antibiotic usage.”
DUAL EFFECTS
All the poultry giants state publicly that they use antibiotics for the limited purpose of keeping chickens healthy.
But the feed tickets, which list the medications included in chicken feed, highlight a second effect of many of the drugs: bulking up the birds.
Some of the tickets reviewed for this article state that the antibiotics promote feed efficiency or weight gain in chickens. The FDA requires companies to list growth promotion on feed tickets whenever feed includes antibiotics that have been approved for that purpose.
NOURISHMENT: Some Perdue flocks receive feed with an antibiotic, others don’t; here, Perdue feed containing a non-medically important antibiotic called narasin at C&A Farms in Fairmont, North Carolina. REUTERS/Randall Hill
Reuters found eight different antibiotics listed on the tickets it reviewed. The tickets come from a scattering of farms across the United States – in Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington State, among other locations.
George’s Inc, a poultry company based in Springdale, Arkansas, issued feed tickets last year to a chicken grower in Virginia. The tickets show that the antibiotics tylosin and virginiamycin were administered solely for “increased rate of weight gain.”
Tylosin belongs to a class of antibiotics the FDA considers “critically important” in human medicine, the most crucial of three ranks of sensitive drugs. Virginiamycin is part of a class in the FDA’s middle rank, “highly important.”
Other George’s Inc feed tickets, given to two growers in Virginia this year, show the antibiotics bacitracin and narasin and a non-antibiotic drug called nicarbazin were included in every poultry ration in different combinations until shortly before slaughter. Bacitracin can promote growth.
George’s said in a statement: “Occasionally (when necessary to control certain pathogens) appropriate FDA approved medications are utilized to prevent, control or treat specific diseases.” It declined to answer detailed questions.
Use of antibiotics to stave off disease in flocks “is good, prudent veterinary medicine…. Prevention of the disease … prevents the overuse of potentially medically important antibiotics in treatment of sick birds.”
At Tyson Foods, two feed tickets sent by the company to two Mississippi farms show that bacitracin and the non-antibiotic nicarbazin were among the drugs mixed into the feed. The tickets state the drug combination is “for use in the prevention of coccidiosis in broiler flocks, growth promotion and feed efficiency.” Coccidiosis is a common intestinal ailment.
Tyson, also based in Springdale, Arkansas, said it does not use bacitracin to promote growth, only to prevent disease. The FDA requires companies to list growth promotion on tickets if medications have that effect, Tyson said. The company said that its feed mixture changes throughout the year. In some seasons, it said, the feed doesn’t include bacitracin and nicarbazin.
At Koch Foods Inc, a Chicago-based supplier to fast-food chain KFC Corp, feed tickets contradict a statement on the Koch website about antibiotic use.
Until Aug. 27, the website said Koch Foods uses antibiotics for the narrow purpose of protecting the health of its chickens. “We do not administer antibiotics at growth promotion doses,” the statement read in part. “No antibiotics of human significance are used to treat our birds.”
Koch feed tickets dated from Nov. 30, 2011, through July 20, 2014, indicate otherwise. They list low-dose amounts of five different types of antibiotics in feed given to flocks at one Alabama farm. One was virginiamycin, in a class considered “highly important” to fighting infections in humans.
In 34 of the 55 Koch Foods feed tickets that Reuters examined, antibiotics at low-dose levels were listed “for increased rate of weight gain,” a related growth-promotion use called “improved feed efficiency,” or both. Each of those feed tickets also said the antibiotics were for the prevention of coccidiosis, another bacterial infection, or both.
Koch Foods changed the website after being asked by Reuters about its use of virginiamycin. “I regret the wording mistake on that particular letter” on the website, said Mark Kaminsky, Koch’s chief financial officer. The company said it is required by the FDA to list certain drugs as growth promoters if they have that effect; Koch says it does not use them for that purpose.
Koch said it has no plans to discontinue the use of virginiamycin, which it says may be used to prevent a common intestinal infection in chicken.
KFC U.S. said in a statement: “KFC’s supply partners must adhere to our strict standards and specifications, which in some cases are more stringent than the FDA’s regulations.” A spokeswoman didn’t address detailed questions about antibiotic use by Koch Foods and KFC’s other chicken suppliers.
HEALTHIER CHICKENS?
The experience of one grower raises questions about whether preventive use of antibiotics has a meaningful effect on the health of chicken.
Craig Watts, who grows chicken for Perdue, says he sees little difference in outcomes for the birds he raises on feed containing an antibiotic and those he grows for the company’s antibiotic-free line.
Perdue mixes the antibiotic narasin into feed given to chickens in the company’s antibiotic-fed line. Its antibiotic-free line contains antimicrobial drugs that kill micro-organisms, but none that the FDA defines as an antibiotic, according to Perdue feed tickets shown by Watts. None of the drugs listed by Perdue on the feed tickets is considered medically important for humans.
Watts owns C&A Farms, about 20 miles north of Dillon, South Carolina. Since 2012, he has raised five antibiotic-free flocks for Perdue and seven flocks that received low doses of the antibiotic narasin, according to his records.
SAFETY CHECK: Craig Watts, a contract farmer for Perdue Farms, checks a euthanized chicken for disease. He says he finds little difference in outcome between chickens that are fed antibiotics and those that aren’t. REUTERS/Randall Hill
The mortality rates of the two flock types were nearly identical. About 900 birds died, per house, on the four-house farm. Flocks that received antibiotics and those that didn’t both hit Perdue's target weight of about 4.25 pounds per bird.
Perdue sees “similar” performance among birds fed antibiotics and those that do not receive the drugs, said Stewart-Brown, the Perdue official overseeing food safety. “We feel our current two approaches are both very responsive to public health concerns about antibiotic use in poultry.”
Perdue still uses antibiotics in some cases, because antibiotic-free flocks are “more expensive to run and more difficult to manage effectively,” Stewart-Brown said. The production complex served by Watts’ farm recently transitioned to all antibiotic-free flocks.
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK
One poultry giant whose antibiotic use has come into question is Foster Farms, based in Livingston, California. Its experience shows the difficulty of pinpointing when and how a bacteria turns into a superbug, say federal investigators.
Beginning last year, a salmonella outbreak spread across Oregon, Washington, California and 27 other states and territories. Federal investigators later linked the outbreak to chickens raised by Foster Farms and processed at a trio of its slaughterhouses in central California, according to USDA and CDC officials.
The scope of the outbreak reflected Foster Farms’ vast scale. Its operations in California’s Central Valley date to 1939, when Max and Verda Foster borrowed $1,000 against a life insurance policy and invested in an 80-acre farm.
Today, Foster owns large tracts of California farmland, chicken hatcheries in Colorado and train cars that haul grain from the Midwest. An estimated one of 10 chickens eaten in the United States is hatched, raised and slaughtered by Foster Farms, according to industry officials. The company dominates the chicken market west of the Rocky Mountains.
As the CDC studied what investigators informally called the “Foster Farms Outbreak,” researchers soon made a troubling discovery. Some of the Salmonella Heidelberg strains linked to Foster products proved resistant to a variety of antibiotics, the CDC concluded. Some of those drugs belonged to the same classes as penicillin and chlortetracycline, or CTC.
“The overuse of antibiotics on many chicken farms is rampant.”
Some questions remain. Government investigators didn’t determine how the Salmonella Heidelberg traced to Foster Farms became resistant to antibiotics, and didn’t trace the resistant bacteria to specific farms. They didn’t examine Foster feed tickets from the outbreak period to see which antibiotics the company was using and how the drugs were being administered.
Reuters asked to see Foster Farms’ feed tickets from that period; the company didn’t respond to that request.
Foster Farms said it commissioned research that yielded findings very different from the CDC’s. The company declined to share the study. It summarized the research by saying scientists found no antibiotic resistance in two dozen salmonella samples collected from Foster Farms in 2012.
A CDC spokeswoman said the agency is aware that Foster Farms sponsored a study and has asked to review it, but hasn’t received a copy.
Foster Farms told Reuters it has administered CTC and penicillin at times, but selectively, not as part of standard feed. Foster said it had used CTC “as needed” to fight bacterial infections. It declined to say where or when it administered CTC. The company said it still uses penicillin to treat sick birds, but only “in critical situations when flocks are exposed to fatal diseases.” Foster doesn’t use antibiotics as growth promoters, it said.
CDC official Robert Tauxe helped investigate the outbreak. “Use of chlortetracycline could have contributed to the resistance patterns we saw” in the Salmonella Heidelberg, said Tauxe. “Penicillin, too.”
On July 11, the CDC said the Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak had ended. The USDA said it is monitoring the company’s new salmonella-prevention efforts. Agency officials and Foster’s chief veterinarian, Bob O’Connor, said the measures are working.
The company has reduced salmonella-infection rates on chicken meat from its California facilities to less than 3 percent, O’Connor said, far below the national average of 25 percent.
Despite the gains, O’Connor said the challenge of eradicating salmonella in the chicken industry remains. “For the people who wanted a silver-bullet-type story, there isn't one,” O’Connor said. “With salmonella, we're not going to be able to say, ‘It's over.’”
David Acheson, a former senior medical officer for the USDA and the FDA, now serves on a food safety advisory board for Foster Farms. He said the board never examined Foster’s use of antibiotics and whether its practices could have spawned superbugs.
“Does anyone know that it happened? No. Is it possible? Could it have happened? Yes,” Acheson said. “We know that antibiotic use, irrelevant of what you are treating, whether it be human or animal, can increase the likelihood of resistance. It’s biology at work.”
Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago and Livingston, California, Brian Grow in Atlanta and Fairmont, North Carolina and Michael Erman in New York. Additional reporting Eric Johnson. Edited by David Greising and Blake Morrison.
FDA has reviewed just 7 percent of animal antibiotics for superbug risk
NEW YORK – Scientists fear the widespread use of antibiotics on the farm may be a factor in the rise of “superbugs” – bacteria that grow resistant to drugs, infect humans and defy conventional medicines.
Amid these concerns, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has come under pressure to curb antibiotic use in farm animals. In 2003, the agency announced plans to evaluate every new animal drug based on the drug’s potential to create superbugs.
But the FDA hasn’t reviewed the vast majority of animal drugs now on the market, because most were approved before 2003.
Reuters found that the agency has evaluated such risks for only about 10 percent of the approximately 270 drugs containing types of antibiotics the FDA considers medically important for treating humans and are also used in chickens, pigs and cattle.
Overall, the FDA has evaluated the superbug risks for only about 7 percent of the approximately 390 drugs containing antibiotics that the agency has certified for veterinary use in chicken, pigs and cattle.
Since the 1940s, the animal husbandry industry typically has included low levels of antibiotics in feed, in part to promote the growth of animals raised for meat.
The FDA initiative to limit the risks posed by animal antibiotics took on new life last December. The agency issued a voluntary guideline calling on animal-drug makers to limit the approved uses of their drugs.
Aware that poultry, pork and beef producers were attracted to many antibiotics because of their ability to promote faster growth, the agency urged the drug makers to discontinue growth promotion as an approved use on labels of medically important antibiotics.
In a related initiative, the FDA by April 2015 intends to implement a “veterinary feed directive.” The new regulation will require veterinarians to oversee the use of antibiotics available over-the-counter that are mixed into feed.
Today, all major makers of animal drugs that contain antibiotics, including Zoetis Inc and Eli Lilly & Co’s Elanco Animal Health unit, voluntarily have agreed to start removing growth promotion claims on product labels, according to the FDA. Labels must be modified by December 2016.
As a result, 31 drugs have been withdrawn from the market by their makers, and manufacturers have changed the labels on two other drugs, according to the FDA.
Even so, the labeling changes leave a loophole. No matter what labels say, meat producers can continue to use existing antibiotics at low levels, so long as producers assert the drugs are used for treatment, control and prevention of disease.
Problems at Foster Farms plants emerged amid salmonella outbreak, documents show
“The important point is that we have always worked quickly to fully address, correct any USDA concerns and improve our process.”
LIVINGSTON, California – Sanitation problems at a slaughterhouse can promote the spread of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” by allowing dangerous bacteria to remain on meat that is shipped into the food supply. In the poultry industry, salmonella is a particular risk.
A review of government food-safety inspections from 2013 shows federal inspectors repeatedly cited Foster Poultry Farms for not complying with food-safety standards at three plants in central California linked to a salmonella outbreak that began that March. The 18-month salmonella outbreak ended in July of this year.
U.S. Department of Agriculture records show that inspectors found problems at two plants in Fresno and a third in Livingston, California. Investigators traced chicken handled at those plants to a Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak that made hundreds of people sick.
According to the USDA reports, raw chicken headed for chilling tanks was smeared with feces. At one plant, workers entered a packaging area wearing gloves that had not been properly cleaned.
Salmonella is common in chicken feces, feathers and other body parts, and it can cause diarrhea, fever, vomiting and other ailments in humans. Foster Farms and other poultry companies say they use antibiotics on live chickens to keep them healthy, and after the birds are slaughtered, they apply antimicrobial treatments to remove pathogens from raw meat.
“Foster Farms is fully committed to sanitary operations in all company facilities,” the company said in a statement.
Sanitation lapses can compromise food safety equipment, especially when problems occur at the final stages of processing, say epidemiologists and food safety consultants.
During the recent Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak, inspectors for the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service cited Foster Farms more than 480 times for not complying with food safety standards, according to agency records obtained by Reuters. The USDA records cover the period beginning February 1, 2013, a month before the outbreak began, and ending December 31.
On October 11, 2013, for instance, a USDA inspector at the Foster Farms plant in Livingston found fecal-filled intestines stored in tubs alongside raw chicken giblets. The giblets had been treated to reduce salmonella and other bacteria, and were nearly ready for shipment, according to the report.
A separate USDA inspector at the Fresno plant found feces on chicken heading into a chiller on June 28, 2013. One of 10 carcasses pulled from the chilling process was “contaminated with visible feces,” the inspector wrote.
Foster Farms said it quickly corrects problems found in such “routine in-process” inspections. “The important point is that we have always worked quickly to fully address, correct any USDA concerns and improve our process,” the company said.
This summer, Foster Farms said it has invested more than $75 million in new equipment and other efforts to reduce salmonella rates. Today, the company said, chicken processed at the Fresno and Livingston plants shows contamination in only 2.4 percent of tests, well below the industry’s 25 percent average.
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Farmaceuticals: The drugs fed to farm animals and the risks posed to humans
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