Lira farmers share ARVs with their pigs

Lira. The pork you are enjoying for breakfast, lunch or dinner could take you to an early grave. Yes! The same life-prolonging drugs that are prescribed to treat HIV/Aids patients are now being given to pigs that supply the pork we eat every day.
Farmers say they have to feed ARVs to pigs to keep them healthy and meet the area’s growing appetite for cheap pork. But public health advocates argue that the practice breeds antibiotic-resistant germs in animals that can cause deadly harm to the consumers.

“It is really wrong to use the drugs meant for humans on animals and vice versa, because the biochemical path that each of them takes is different,” says Dr Patrick Buchan Ocen, the acting Lira District health officer.
Whereas getting ARVs for persons living with HIV/Aids in other parts of the country is a struggle, residents of Barapwo parish, Lira Sub-county in Lira District, have “enrolled” their pigs on ARVs.

It is alleged the residents mix ARVs with the animals’ feed in an effort to avoid swine fever. Others argue that apart from not being affected by swine fever, pigs fatten and grow faster consuming the drugs.
“Last month, there was an outbreak of swine fever in our area, so I mixed ARVs with the feeds and gave to my piglets. However, only three survived and 10 died,” a farmer told this newspaper on condition of anonymity. He claimed more than 100 of the pigs that were given the drugs have survived.
This newspaper understands HIV patients from Lira Sub-county pick up their drugs from Barapwo Health Centre III and Amuca SDA Health Centre.

Another farmer confessed that he feeds his pigs on the drug at least once every month.
“We always get the drugs from HIV/Aids patients and give our pigs. Those who did not feed ARVs to their pigs last month lost all their animals to swine fever,” she claims.
However, experts say ARVs can be used in the treatment of viral conditions, which some curious farmers think can actually cure swine fever. But one may be under dosing the animals because they take considerable larger doses of antibiotics than human beings.

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious hemorrhagic disease that affects pigs, warthogs, European wild boar and American wild pigs. All age groups are equally susceptible.
With high virulence forms of the virus, ASF is characterised by high fever, loss of appetite, haemorrhages in the skin and internal organs, and death in 2-10 days on average. Mortality rates may be as high as 100 per cent.
Dr Francis Okwir, a veterinary doctor who has been treating pigs in Lira Sub-county, said some farmers were reportedly using ARVs to fatten their pigs and also fight swine fever.
“They say pigs that have been put on ARVs grow faster and they are always fat but we have not yet confirmed that,” Dr Okwir told Saturday Monitor in a telephone interview on Monday.

How HIV/Aids patients are affected

Health officials say there is deteriorating health among some persons on ARVs, suspecting the drugs given to them are used for other purposes. Many are said to be weak and their CD4 count has dropped drastically.
“We think those who pick up the drugs are actually using them because when they come to health facilities, you find that they have marked that they have used the drugs as recommended,” Dr Okullo says.
To prevent the development of drug resistance, an adherence level of at least 95 per cent is recommended for the duration of therapy.

Lira Resident District Commissioner Emmanuel Mwaka Lutukumoi says it is hard to prove the allegations because it is hard to know who is on medication since people’s status is confidential.
Dr Florence Ocen, an HIV/Aids specialist, says when a person fails to take ARVs as required, he or she develops resistance and in return, opportunistic infections get their way into the body.
“Meaning if really you are supposed to take it like after every 12 hours, it means after the 12 hours, the blood is without that drug,” she says. “If you don’t take the drug in time, it gives chances for viruses to continue multiplying in the blood.”

HIV/Aids services in Lira are being supported majorly by development partners. The district, once a war-torn region, is also among the hardest hit by HIV, with a prevalence of 8.3 per cent, more than the national average of 7.3 per cent.
Dr Ocen further says: “Of course, as a district, the prevalence is still high. So that means it is still a big problem and we are seeing the greatest challenge now within the urban and some rural settings.”
On whether the ARVs are adequate for HIV patients, he says: “ARVs are purely for patients, not for any other use; definitely you divert the use we shall have a shortage of drugs. But we have enough ARVs for our patients.”

Effects on consumers
Dr James Okullo, the in-charge of Erute North Sub-district, says wrong medication to animals might have side effects to humans who consume the meat.
“They (farmers) are weird! That small dose you get from the meat is dangerous,” he says, warning the farmers against the practice.
Dr Okullo adds: “Animals have their own drugs and the dosage is different, and the farmers are risking the lives of their animals and the consumers. If you eat the meat of the pig that was given ARVs, by the time you start taking ARVs, you will become resistant to the drugs.”
Dr Ocen says it is wrong to use drugs meant for human beings on animals.

“The way we human beings break down the drug into harmless compound is different from the way animals do. And that is why when you hear of tetracycline in human beings, you may hear of oxytetracycline in animals, so that means we are not the same,” he explains.
Even the disease cause in humans is different from the disease cause in animals.
“So that means ARVs must not be given to any other species apart from human beings and in human beings, it must be given in recommended doses,” Dr Ocen says.

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