Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

UFS contributes to discussion on food integrity, animal welfare, and antibiotics

03 May 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Sonia Small

Prof Robert Bragg from the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry at the University of the Free State formed part of a live panel discussion with leaders from the food and beverage sector, debating the challenges facing the industry and sharing their lessons and solutions.

The discussion, part of a week-long virtual event (19-23 April), was attended by more than 1 300 attendees representing 500 food manufacturers, retailers, ingredient companies, and laboratories from 83 countries.

The magazine, New Food, coordinated the initiative that focused on food integrity. Speaking with Prof Bragg at the session that centred around animal welfare, zoonotic disease, and antibiotics, were Catherine McLaughlin, Chair, Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (RUMA); Vicky Bond, UK Managing Director, The Humane League; and Daniela Battaglia, Livestock Development Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The rise of antibiotic resistance

James Russell, President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA), was the moderator of the discussion that also touched on the issues surrounding animal welfare; how animal welfare can impact meat quality; avoiding future zoonotic disease; the rise of antibiotic resistance; ethical considerations to be mindful of; and the use of pesticides and safety considerations.

Prof Bragg specifically talked about antibiotic resistance. “Mankind has major problems with antibiotics,” he said.

He asked if animal agriculture can be sustained without the use of antibiotics and stated that it was necessary to look at alternatives. Possible solutions he suggested include improved vaccines, bacteriophages, and phage enzymes. He, however, believes that biosecurity will be the most effective alternative.

Living in a post-antibiotic area

Disinfectants are one of the biosecurity measures taken to minimise the risk of infectious diseases. “But it is important to be aware of the fact that as resistance to antibiotics increases the resistance to disinfectants also increases,” said Prof Bragg.

He continued: “An increase in the use of disinfectants increases the resistance to disinfectants. This is also evident in humans, especially now during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of these disinfectants are also of poor quality,” he said.

According to Prof Bragg, we are living in a post-antibiotic era. “Although food standards are higher in developed countries such as in Europe – where people can pay more for poultry that were fed diets with reduced antibiotics, it is important to keep in mind that people cannot pay the same for poultry in developing countries. These countries often import poultry from countries where the food standards are not that high and where birds were treated to diets containing more antibiotics. A large supplier of poultry in Africa is small-scale farmers, who also feed their birds food containing higher levels of antibiotics.”

“We need to look at the antibiotic problem as a global problem; a concern that will be with us for a while,” said Prof Bragg.

One solution provided by the group was for mankind to reduce its meat intake and moving to a more plant-based diet. This will have a significant effect on animal welfare as well as reducing the demand for antibiotics.

News Archive

Doing what must be done – Fourth Reconciliation Lecture by Colm McGivern

2015-03-17

Colm McGivern
Photo: Johan Roux

Fourth Reconciliation Lecture: Audio

McGivern: speech (pdf)

The UFS Annual Reconciliation Lecture brings leaders, scholars, and the broader community together in a shared vision for social change and conflict transformation. This event is organised by Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation Studies. In 2012, Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature, was the first speaker to deliver the lecture. This year, at the Fourth Annual Reconciliation Lecture held on the Bloemfontein Campus, Colm McGivern, Director of the British Council in South Africa, continued the legacy.

Doing what must be done
'I get down on my knees and do what must be done
And kiss Achilles' hand, the killer of my son.' (Ceasefire by Michael Longley)

Using this poem to powerful effect, McGivern showed what reconciliation asks of each and every citizen: to do what must be done. “I think that peace and reconciliation are mutually dependent,” he said. “You can’t maintain one over the long run without attending to the other.”

South Africa’s history has tracked along a similar path to that of Northern Ireland. “And lessons from other places can be powerful and instructive,” McGivern said. Sometimes reconciliation needs a focal point for people to clearly see its power, as Madiba has for South Africa. But at other times, reconciliation needs everyday citizens to “kiss Achilles’ hand’”.

McGivern mentioned Candice Mama and her family, who have recently forgiven Eugene de Kock,. Or as Gordon Wilson did after his daughter, Mary, died holding his hand in the 1987 Enniskillen bombing in Ireland. In a TV interview mere hours later, Wilson forgave the killers of his daughter, and hope rippled across Ireland.

Learning from others
“People’s capability,” McGivern said, “to reconcile their own differences, however stark, can be boosted by learning from others in other places, internationally or perhaps just beyond their own identity group.” A powerful truth now being pursued in a joined initiative between the British Council and Teaching Divided Histories.

As an example, McGivern referred to the short film, ‘In Peace Apart’ where one Catholic and one Protestant girl decide to swop school uniforms. Harnessing the potential of moving images and digital media, the initiative enables teachers to explore contentious issues of history and identity in the classroom. This international field of conflict education draws lessons “from activities in Sierra Leone, India, Lebanon, and, of course, South Africa.”

Resuscitation of the national spirit of magnanimity
Here in South Africa, Archbishop Desmund Tutu has “called for a resuscitation of the national spirit of magnanimity and common purpose”, McGivern quoted. In the book, 80 Moments that Shaped the World, South Africa appears four times, McGivern pointed out. And as Archbishop Tutu wrote in the foreword of the book, “no act is unforgivable; no person or country is beyond redemption and the world needs more people to reach out to one another.”

For more information or enquiries contact news@ufs.ac.za.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept