WHAT DO CHICKENS HATCH? Health & Science Food Industry, antibiotics, INTERMEDIATE I Reporting facts Review of tenses; Verbs + (that) + clause; Vocabulary Time; May 31, 1999 Jennifer Housman Color: Page 3 Duplex: pages 1/ 2, 4/ 5, 6/ 7 Ask Ss: Why should we be careful with what we eat? What kinds of food give you what you need to keep healthy? What are some of the most common problems that can affect the food we eat? What are the possible consequences of these? ( - Health... - Kind of food) ( - Fish - Dairy products - Fruit - Chicken, etc) (- Freshness - State of hygiene - Preparation - Contamination etc.) (- Infections - Diseases - Allergies) Hand out headline and photo. Ask Ss: What do you think the article is about? What type of health problems can arise form the consumption of chickens or eggs? Hand out sheet containing paragraphs in jumbled - up order. Ask Ss to put the paragraphs in order and explain why. Then ask Ss: What was the first thing that doctors observed in their patients? What was the cause of the problem? Why didn t they respond to treatment? What did scientists do to confirm that livestock were the source of the problem? What was their conclusion? What are the consequences? How can the problem be avoided? 1
Interact with the Ss and discuss the following: What is the advantage of feeding antibiotics to farm animals? Why is it unlikely that the FDA will cut off the availability of quinolones destined for feeding livestock? Distribute Activity 1 - Ask Ss to fill in the blanks in the text with the correct form of the verb selected from the list using the appropriate tense. Ask Ss: To analyze and justify their choice of tense in activity no. 1 To analyze the combination Verb + that + clause form For example: "Scientists and consumer activists long suspected that there was, but were never able to prove it". Lead Ss to discover further examples in the text. Distribute activity 2 - Ask Ss to complete the table using the correct form of each word. This exercise is not inclusive, in some cases there are other possible forms which are not listed in the answer key. This only shows the more common variations but there are more possibilities for some of these words. Answer key: Verbs Nouns Adjectives Resist Resistance Resistant Poison Poison Poisonous Report Report/reporter Reported Contaminate Contamination Contaminated Produce Production Productive disturb disturbance Disturbed Defend Defender/defendant Defensive develop Development Developed/developing Connect Connection Connected Ask Ss to write a short summary of the article. Divide SS into 2 groups and ask them to prepare a short debate for and against the use of pharmaceutical and other related drugs in livestock production for human consumption. Are you still going to eat chickens and other animal products after reading this article? 2
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Directions: Put the paragraphs into the correct order. Now they can. In the first study to connect antibiotic resistance in humans directly with the food we eat, a group of Minnesota public health specialists reported in last week s New England Journal of Medicine that an eightfold increase in drug-resistant food poisoning among Minnesotians directly followed the approval and use of the same drug in chickens. While most of their patients got sick while traveling overseas where overuse of antibiotics is even more widespread than in the U.S. the scientists found evidence that the same thing is happening right here at home. What makes the report especially disturbing is that the drug in question is a quinolone, one of a family of antibiotics that, with the spread of penicillin resistant superbugs, have become the doctor s first line of defense. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers the quinolones so important, in fact, that when the agency approved their use in animals in 1995, it insisted that their manufacturers establish a network to monitor for signs that drug resistance was spreading to humans. The monitoring programs of Abbott and Bayer, however, seem to have been less effective than Minnesota s, which was the first to notice that the chickens antibiotics had come home to roost. Now that the link has been established, will the FDA cut off the supply of quinolones to animals? Not likely, or at least not right away. Although the FDA is currently forming a plan for pulling antibiotics off farms and ranches when human resistance develops, the agency has yet to establish how much resistance is too much. It may be months before such thresholds are set. Meanwhile, the best advice to consumers is to wash knives, cutting boards and hands after preparing chicken and insist that it be cooked thoroughly, especially when travelling abroad. More than 8.5 million kg of antibiotics are fed to cattle, pigs and chickens each year as they amble toward the dinner table. At the same time, doctors treating meat-eating humans have seen a steady and alarming increase in infections resistant to these same antibiotics. Is there a link? Scientists and consumer activists long suspected that there was, but were never able to prove it. To be certain that farm animals were the source of the problem, the scientists performed an experiment that mixed molecular genetics with shoe-leather detective work. First they decoded a unique stretch of the resistant bug s DNA, and then they went shopping. They bought 91 chickens in local markets and, by matching DNA, found that 14% were contaminated with exactly the same bug. Tracking the infections to the source, the scientists discovered that the birds originated not from any single chicken farm but from farms across Minnesota and surrounding states suggesting that the problem was widespread in the industry. Their conclusion: the antibiotic produced a resistant bug that was passed directly to consumers, probably through poor handling or undercooking. The link is not hypothetical anymore, says Stuart Levy, director of Tufts University s center for drug resistance. 4
ACTIVITY Nº 1 - Fill in the blanks in the text with the correct form of the verb selected from the list: report connect form perform happen discover be (x2) follow see become consider The following tenses could be applied as appropriate: simple present present perfect future past perfect present continuous DRUGGED CHICKS HATCH A MENACE More than 8.5 million kg of antibiotics are fed to cattle, pigs and chickens each year as they amble toward the dinner table. At the same time, doctors treating meat-eating humans a steady and alarming increase in infections resistant to these same antibiotics. Is there a link? Scientists and consumer activists long suspected that there was, but never able to prove it. Now they can. In the first study to antibiotic resistance in humans directly with the food we eat, a group of Minnesota public health specialists in last week s New England Journal of Medicine that an eightfold increase in drug-resistant food poisoning among Minnesotians directly the approval and use of the same drug in chickens. While most of their patients got sick while traveling overseas where overuse of antibiotics is even more widespread than in the U.S. the scientists found evidence that the same thing right here at home. To be certain that farm animals were the source of the problem, the scientists an experiment that mixed molecular genetics with shoe-leather detective work. First they decoded a unique stretch of the resistant bug s DNA, and then they went shopping. They bought 91 chickens in local markets and, by matching DNA, found that 14% were contaminated with exactly the same bug. Tracking the infections to the source, the scientists that the birds originated not from any single chicken farm but from farms across Minnesota and surrounding states suggesting that the 5 problem was widespread in the industry. Their conclusion: the antibiotic produced a resistant bug that was passed directly to consumers, probably through poor handling or undercooking. The link is not hypothetical anymore, says Stuart Levy, director of Tufts University s center for drug resistance. What makes the report especially disturbing is that the drug in question is a quinolone one of a family of antibiotics that, with the spread of penicillin resistant superbugs, the doctor s first line of defense. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration the quinolones so important, in fact, that when the agency approved their use in animals in 1995, it insisted that their manufacturers establish a network to monitor for signs that drug resistance was spreading to humans. The monitoring programs of Abbott and Bayer, however, seem to have been less effective than Minnesota s, which was the first to notice that the chickens antibiotics had come home to roost. Now that the link established, will the FDA cut off the supply of quinolones to animals? Not likely or at least not right away. Although the FDA currently a plan for pulling antibiotics off farms and ranches when human resistance develops, the agency has yet to establish how much resistance is too much. It may be months before such thresholds are set. Meanwhile, the best advice to consumers is to wash knives, cutting boards and hands after preparing chicken and insist that it be cooked thoroughly, especially when travelling abroad.
ACTIVITY Nº 2 - Complete the table with the correct form of the following words. VERB NOUN ADJECTIVE resist resistant poison report contaminated produce product disturbed defend development connect 6
M DRUGGED CHICKS HATCH A MENACE states suggesting that the problem was ore than 8.5 million kg of antibiotics are fed to cattle, pigs and chickens each year as they amble toward the dinner table. At the same time, doctors treating meat-eating humans have seen a steady and alarming increase in infections resistant to these same antibiotics. Is there a link? Scientists and consumer activists long suspected that there was but were never able to prove it. Now they can. In the first study to connect antibiotic resistance in humans directly with the food we eat, a group of Minnesota public health specialists reported in last week s New England Journal of Medicine that an eightfold increase in drug-resistant food poisoning among Minnesotians directly followed the approval and use of the same drug in chickens. While most of their patients got sick while travelling overseas where overuse of antibiotics is even more widespread than in the U.S. the scientists found evidence that the same thing is happening right here at home. To be certain that farm animals were the source of the problem, the scientists performed an experiment that mixed molecular genetics with shoe-leather detective work. First they decoded a unique stretch of the resistant bug s DNA, and then they went shopping. They bought 91 chickens in local markets and, by matching DNA, found that 14% were contaminated with exactly the same bug. Tracking the infections to the source, the scientists discovered that the birds originated not from any single chicken farm but from farms across Minnesota and surrounding widespread in the industry. Their conclusion: the antibiotic produced a resistant bug that was passed directly to consumers, probably through poor handling or undercooking. The link is not hypothetical anymore, says Stuart Levy, director of Tufts University s center for drug resistance. What makes the report especially disturbing is that the drug in question is a quinolone, one of a family of antibiotics that, with the spread of penicillin resistant superbugs, have become the doctor s first line of defense. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers the quinolones so important, in fact, that when the agency approved their use in animals in 1995, it insisted that their manufacturers establish a network to monitor for signs that drug resistance was spreading to humans. The monitoring programs of Abbott and Bayer, however, seem to have been less effective than Minnesota s, which was the first to notice that the chickens antibiotics had come home to roost. Now that the link has been established, will the FDA cut off the supply of quinolones to animals? Not likely or at least not right away. Although the FDA is currently forming a plan for pulling antibiotics off farms and ranches when human resistance develops, the agency has yet to establish how much resistance is too much. It may be months before such thresholds are set. Meanwhile, the best advice to consumers is to wash knives, cutting boards and hands after preparing chicken and insist that it be cooked thoroughly, especially when travelling abroad. 7