Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat processor and the second largest
chicken producer in the U.S., has admitted that it injects its
chickens with antibiotics before they hatch and then labels them as
raised without antibiotics.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has told Tyson to stop using
the antibiotic-free label, but the company has sued for the right to
keep using it.

Poultry farmers regularly treat chickens and other birds with
antibiotics. But scientists have become increasingly concerned that
the routine use of antibiotics in animal agriculture may accelerate
the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.


After Tyson began labeling its chicken antibiotic-free, the USDA
warned the company that such labels were not truthful, because Tyson
regularly treats its birds' feed with bacteria-killing ionophores.
Tyson argued that ionophores are antimicrobials rather than
antibiotics, and are not used on human patients. Tyson suggested a
compromise which was eventually accepted by the USDA -- they would use
a label reading "raised without antibiotics that impact antibiotic
resistance in humans."

Tyson's competitors: Perdue Farms Inc., Sanderson Farms Inc. and
Foster Farms sued, and in May 2008, a federal judge ruled in their
favor and told Tyson to stop using the label. Not long after, USDA
inspectors discovered that in addition to using ionophores, Tyson was
regularly injecting its chicken eggs with gentamicin, an antibiotic
that has been used for more than 30 years.

The agency told Tyson that based on the new discovery, it would no
longer consider the antibiotic-free label "truthful and accurate."
Tyson objected again, claiming that because the antibiotics are
injected before the chickens hatched, the birds can truthfully be said
to be "raised without antibiotics." Tyson has filed a lawsuit against
the USDA, claiming that the agency had improperly changed the
definition of "raised without antibiotics" to include the treatment of
eggs.

Sources:
Natural News November 9, 2008