爱华网In Hopes of Healthier Chickens, FarmsTurn to Oregano
By STEPHANIE STROM December31, 2012
健康
STEPHANIE STROM报道2012年12月31日
FREDERICKSBURG, Pa. — The smell of oregano wafting from ScottSechler’s office is so strong that anyone visiting Bell & Evansthese days could be forgiven for wondering whether Mr. Sechler hasforsaken the production of chicken and gone into pizza.
宾夕法尼亚州弗雷德里克斯堡——斯科特·塞克勒(ScottSechler)办公室里散发出一股浓郁的牛至味道，也难怪每位前来Bell &Evans拜访的人都会琢磨塞克勒先生是否已经放弃养鸡转而改行做披萨饼了。
Oregano lies loose in trays and tied into bunches on tabletopsand counters, and a big, blue drum that held oregano oil stands inthe corner. “Have you ever tried oregano tea?” Mr. Sechler asked,mashing leaves between his broad fingers.
牛至叶松散地躺在盘子里，成捆地放在桌面和柜面上，角落里放着一个盛着牛至油的蓝色大圆桶。“你喝过牛至茶吗？”，塞克勒边问边用他那粗大的手指捻着牛至叶。
Off and on over the last three years or so, his chickens havebeen eating a specially milled diet laced with oregano oil and a touch of cinnamon. Mr.Sechler swears by the concoction as a way to fight off bacterialdiseases that plague meat and poultry producers without resortingto antibiotics, which some experts say can be detrimental to the humans who eat the meat. Products atBell &Evans, based in this town about 30 miles east of Harrisburg,have long been free of antibiotics, contributing to the company’sfinancial success as consumers have demanded purer foods.
在过去三年多的时间里，他会不时地给鸡喂一种经过特殊研磨的饲料，其中添加了牛至油和少许肉桂。塞克勒相信，使用这种混合饲料可以不使用抗生素的情况下来抵御困扰肉禽生产主的细菌性疾病，据一些专家说，食用含有抗生素的肉制品是有害的。Bell&Evans座落于哈里斯伯格东面约30英里的地方。长期以来，该公司的产品一直不含抗生素，而这为公司带来了丰厚的收入，因为消费者对食品卫生的要求越来越高。
Jessica Kourkounis for The New YorkTimes
在Bell &Evans农场饲养的小鸡吃的饲料中掺有牛至油。
But Mr. Sechler said that nothing he had used as a substitute inthe past worked as well as oregano oil.
但是塞克勒先生说，牛至油比他过去使用过的任何药物替代品都更有效。
“I have worried a bit about how I’m going to sound talking aboutthis,” he said. “But I really do think we’re on to somethinghere.”
他说，“我曾有点担心谈论这件事情可能会带来的影响。但是我真的认为这样做是有意义的。”
Skeptics of herbal medicines abound, as any quick Internetsearch demonstrates. “Oil of oregano is a perennial one, advertisedas a cure for just about everything,” said Scott Gavura, apharmacist in Toronto who writes for the Web site Science-BasedMedicine. “But there isn’t any evidence, there are too manyunanswered questions and the only proponents for it are the onesproducing it.”
随便在互联网上搜索一下就会发现，大家对于草药仍是疑心重重。科学用药网站的撰稿人、多伦多药剂师斯科特·加弗拉(ScottGavura)说，“牛至油是出镜频率较高的一种物质，有人宣称它可以治百病。但这没有任何依据，而且有待确认的问题非常多。此外，牛至油唯一的支持者们都是那些牛至油生产商。”
Nonetheless, Mr. Gavura said he would welcome a reduction in theuse of antibiotics in animals.
尽管如此，加弗拉先生表示，他支持在禽畜饲养过程中少用抗生素。
At the same time, consumers are growing increasinglysophisticated about the content of the foods that they eat.
与此同时，消费者对食材的成分也是越来越讲究。
Data on sales of antibiotic-free meat is hard to come by, butthe sales are a tiny fraction of the overall meat market. Sales inthe United States of organic meat, poultry and fish, which by lawmust be raised without antibiotics, totaled $538 million in 2011,according to the Organic Trade Association. By comparison, sales ofall beef that year were $79 billion.
虽然我们很难获得不含抗生素的肉产品的销售数据，但是此类产品的销量仅占整个肉市场很小的一部分。美国法律规定，国内有机肉类、禽类和鱼的生产商在饲养过程中不能使用抗生素。有机贸易协会(OrganicTradeAssociation)的数据显示，这些产品在2011年的销售额达到了5.38亿美元。而作为对比，当年的牛肉销售额达到了790亿美元。
Still, retailers like Costco, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, aswell as some restaurant chains, complain that they cannot getenough antibiotic-free meat.
尽管如此，像Costco、Whole Foods和TraderJoe’s这样的零售商以及一些连锁饭店都在抱怨不含抗生素的肉产品的供应存在短缺现象。
Noodles& Company, a fast-growing chain of more than 300restaurants, recently added antibiotic-free pork to the choices ofingredients that customers can add to their made-to-order pastas.It ensured its supply by ordering cuts of meat that were not inrelatively high demand and by committing in advance to buy a year’sworth, said Dan Fogarty, its executive vice president formarketing.
成长迅速、拥有300多家连锁店的Noodles &Company公司最近在配料选项中增加了不含抗生素的猪肉，供客户们在点意大利面时选用。该公司市场营销执行副总裁丹·弗加提(DanFogarty)说，为确保供应，公司在订购时选择的是那些需求相对不高的部位的肉，并提前承诺购买一年的用量。
“We’re deliberately voting with our pocketbooks,” he said.
他说，“正是慎重考虑了公司的经济利益后我们做出了这个决定。”
In a nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 adults in March, more than60 percent told the Consumer Reports National Research Center thatthey would be willing to pay at least 5 cents a pound more for meatraised without antibiotics.
3月，消费者报告国家调查中心(Consumer Reports National ResearchCenter)对美国1000名成人开展的电话调查显示，超过60%的受访对象愿意在购买不含抗生素的肉产品时为每磅肉至少多支付5美分。
“Before, it was kind of a nice little business, and while it’sstill microscopic in the grand scheme of things, we’re seeingacceptance from retailers across the country, not just inCalifornia and on the East Coast,” said Stephen McDonnell, founderand chief executive of Applegate, an organic and naturalmeats company.
有机天然肉产品公司Applegate创始人兼首席执行官史蒂芬·迈克唐奈尔(StephenMcDonnell)说，“以前，这是一门不错的小生意，尽管目前它的市场占有量仍然很小，但是我们发现全美范围内的零售商已开始接受这一类肉产品，这还不仅限于来自加州和东海岸的零食商。”
Mr. McDonnell said a confluence of trends, from heightenedinterest in whole and natural foods to growing concerns aboutmedical problems like diabetes, obesity and gluten allergies, were contributing to the demand for antibiotic-freemeat.
迈克唐奈尔说，一系列趋势的融合导致了对不含抗生素肉类需求的上升，这些趋势包括对全食和天然食品的高度关注以及对糖尿病、肥胖和麸质过敏症等医学问题的日益担忧等。
There is growing concern among health care experts and policymakers about antibiotic resistance and the rise of “superbugs,”bacteria that are impervious to one or more antibiotics. Thosebacteria can be passed on to consumers, who eat meat infected withthem and then cannot be treated.
抗生素耐药性和“超级细菌”（对一种或多种抗生素具有耐药性的细菌）的增加让医疗专家和决策者们越发感到担忧。消费者可能会因为食用受病菌污染的肉产品而得病，而且难以得到治疗。
In November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and25 national health organizations and advocacy groups issueda statement on antibiotics that, among other things, called for“limiting the use of medically important human antibiotics in foodanimals” and “supporting the use of such antibiotics in animalsonly for those uses that are considered necessary for assuringanimal health.”
11月，美国疾病预防和控制中心(Centersfor Disease Control andPrevention)联合25家全国性健康机构和倡导组织发表了有关抗生素的声明。该声明在提及其他事项的同时呼吁“在食用类动物的饲养中限制抗生素的使用”，并“支持在仅为确保动物健康的必要情况下使用此类抗生素。”
In 2011, there were several prominent recalls involvingbacterial strains that are resistant to antibiotics, including morethan 60 million pounds of groundbeef contaminated with salmonella Typhimurium and about 36 million pounds of groundturkey spoiled with salmonella Heidelberg.
2011年曾发生过多起重大的与耐药菌株有关的食品召回事件，包括6000多万磅含有鼠伤寒沙门氏菌的牛肉末以及约3600万磅受海德堡沙门菌污染的火鸡肉末。
Consumer Reports released a studylast month that found the bacteria Yersinia enterocolitica in 69percent of 198 pork chop and ground pork samples bought at storesaround the country. Some of the bacteria were resistant to one ormore antibiotics.
消费者报告上月发布的一项调查显示，在美国各大商店购买的198份猪排和猪肉末样品中，69%的样品都含有小肠结肠炎耶尔森菌。一些细菌对某一种或多种抗生素具有耐药性。
Analysis of Food and Drug Administration data by the Center forScience in the Public Interest found that 80 percent of allantibiotics sold in the United States are used in animals. Themajority of those antibiotics are used to spur growth or preventinfections from spreading in the crowded conditions in which mostanimal production takes place today.
公共利益科学中心(Center for Science in the PublicInterest)通过对食品和药物管理局(Food and DrugAdministration)的数据进行分析后发现，在美国销售的所有抗生素中，有80%用在了动物身上。大部分这类抗生素都被用于促进生长或预防疾病的大规模爆发，而且如今，大部分的畜牧生产都是采用的这种大规模饲养。
The European Union has banned the use of antibiotics toaccelerate growth, and the European Parliament is pushing to endtheir use as tools to prevent disease as well.
欧盟已经明令禁止使用抗生素来促进生长，而且欧盟议会也在商讨禁止将抗生素用于疾病防疫用途。
The oregano oil product Mr. Sechler uses, By-O-Reg Plus, is madeby a Dutch company, Ropapharm International. Inthe late 1990s, Bayer conducted trials on the product, known asRopadiar in Europe, comparing its ability to control diarrhea in piglets caused by E. coli with that of four of thecompany’s products.
塞克勒所使用的牛至油产品By-O-Reg Plus由荷兰公司RopapharmInternational制造。在20世纪90年代末，德国拜耳公司(Bayer)对这种在欧洲被称为诺必达(Ropadiar)的产品进行了试验，比较它与拜耳公司的四种产品在治疗由大肠杆菌引起的腹泻时的效果。
In all four test groups, Ropadiar outperformed the Bayerproducts. “Strange but true!” Dr. Lucio Nisoli, the Bayer productmanager, wrote in his report on the trial. “Compared to the variousanti-infectives, with Ropadiar I have obtained much more effectiveand quicker results. Furthermore, piglets treated with Ropadiarlook much more healthy and were not so dehydrated and wasted.”
在全部4个试验组中，诺必达都超过了拜耳产品的疗效。拜耳产品经理卢西欧·尼索利博士(Dr. LucioNisoli)在他的试验报告中写道，“很奇怪，但确实是真的。与其他的多种抗感染药物相比，我发现诺必达的效果要更好而且疗效更快。此外，使用诺必达的小猪看起来更健康，显得脱水现象不那么严重，也不是特别虚弱。”
Astrid Köhler, a spokeswoman in Monheim, Germany, for BayerHealthcare’s animal health business, confirmed that the company haddone the trial but said that “in further evaluations the results ofthe first study could not be replicated with the same species, norwith other species.”
德国蒙海姆拜耳医疗保健部(Bayer Healthcare)动物健康业务发言人阿斯特里德·科勒(Astrid Köhler)证实了公司曾进行过该试验，但她说，“进一步的评估发现，第一次研究的结果并不能在同一种或其他种动物上再现。”
Other testing is rare. A test of oregano oil on four small farms in Maine, which wasfinanced by a $9,914 grant from the Agriculture Department, foundit was effective in controlling the parasites and worms thatafflict goats and sheep.
其他的此类测试并不多。农业部曾拨款9914美元在缅因州4个小农场对牛至油进行测试，测试结果显示，牛至油能有效地控制困扰山羊和绵羊的寄生虫和蠕虫病。
Dr. Harry G. Preuss, a professor of physiology and biology atthe Georgetown University Medical Center, studied the effectivenessof oregano oil on 18 mice infected with staph bacteria. Six micewere given oregano oil, and half survived for the full 30 days ofthe treatment. Six received carvacrol, regarded by many experts tobe the antibacterial component in oregano, in olive oil, and noneof them survived longer than 21 days. Six other mice received onlyolive oil and died within three days.
乔治城大学医学中心(Georgetown University MedicalCenter)生理学和生物学教授哈利·普鲁斯博士(Dr. Harry G.Preuss)对18只受葡萄球菌感染的老鼠进行了牛至油疗效测试。有6只老鼠服用了牛至油，在为期30天的治疗过后，有半数老鼠活了下来。有6只老鼠服用了香芹酚，很多专家认为这一物质是牛至油和橄榄油中的主要抗菌成分，但是没有一只老鼠活过21天。剩下的6只老鼠仅服用了橄榄油，3天后全部死亡。
The study, which was underwritten by a company, North AmericanHerb and Spice, and presented at a meeting of the American Collegeof Nutrition in 2001, was repeated and all those findings werecorroborated, Dr. Preuss said.
普鲁斯博士说，这一研究由北美草药和香料公司(North American Herb andSpice)资助，并于2001年在美国营养大学(American College ofNutrition)的一次会议上进行了公布。人们随后重复了这一实验，而所有这些发现也得到了证实。
Dr. Preuss said he had applied to the National Institutes ofHealth for financing of a larger study, with no luck so far. “Thisis really promising, particularly when you consider that we arefacing a crisis in our hospitals and health systems with theincreasing resistance to antibiotics,” he said.
普鲁斯博士说，他已向美国国立卫生研究所(National Institutes ofHealth)提交了经费申请，以开展更大规模的研究，但目前一直未获批。他说，“这项研究真的很有前途，尤其考虑到我们的医院和健康体系正面临着抗生素耐药性不断增加的危机。”
After hearing about Bell & Evans’s use of oregano oil, BobRuth, the president of Country View Family Farms, aPennsylvania-based company, decided to test it on some of his pigs.Over the last six months, about 5,000 pigs have eaten feed lacedwith By-O-Reg after being weaned from their mothers.
在听说Bell & Evans使用牛至油后，宾夕法尼亚州公司乡村风景家庭农场(Country View FamilyFarms)总裁鲍勃·鲁斯(BobRuth)决定让公司的部分猪试用牛至油。在过去的6个月当中，约有5000头猪在断奶后食用了掺有By-O-Reg产品的饲料。
“The preliminary results are encouraging, but we need to be sureit’s giving us the results we need to give us the confidence tostart using it more broadly,” Mr. Ruth said.
鲁斯说，“初期结果是喜人的，但是我们有必要确认它能给公司带来所需的效果，使得公司有信心开始进行更大规模的使用。”
Mr. Ruth and Mr. Sechler warned that using oregano oil tocontrol bacterial infection also requires maintaining highstandards of sanitation in barns where animals are sheltered, aswell as good ventilation and light, and a good nutritionprogram.
鲁斯和塞克勒都提醒说，使用牛至油来控制细菌感染的同时，还需要在饲养动物的畜棚中保持高标准的卫生条件、良好的通风和照明以及采用优良的营养方案。
After a chicken flock leaves a barn at Bell & Evans forslaughter, for instance, the facility is hosed down, its waterlines are cleaned out and everything is disinfected. It sits emptyfor two to three weeks to allow bacteria to die off and to ensurethat the rodents that carry salmonella and campylobacter areeliminated.
例如，在待屠鸡群离开Bell &Evans的鸡舍之后，公司会用水来冲洗设施，清扫供水线并对所有设备进行消毒。然后鸡舍会空置两到三周，为的是让细菌死亡，并确保彻底消灭携带沙门氏菌和弯曲菌的鼠类。
“You can’t just replace antibiotics with oregano oil and expectit to work,” Mr. Sechler said.
塞克勒说，“并不是拿牛至油取代抗生素之后一切就万事大吉了。”
