McDonald's said it will obey Chinese law and stop using chicken reared with antibiotics, although China was not listed among the first countries by the chain to cut antibiotic use in its chicken in 2018.
The fast food chain recently said that it will stop using chicken reared with human antibiotics in Brazil, Canada, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Europe in 2018, and other markets in 2027.
As China was not listed in the first countries to implement the decision, McDonald's explained that the proper use of antibiotics is necessary, and its suppliers will follow veterinarian instructions in terms of using antibiotics in compliance with relevant laws and regulations in China.
All chicken to be used in its restaurants in China will be required to pass relevant tests, the fast food chain promised.
Zhu Yi, associate professor at China Agricultural University, said that antibiotics forbidden to be used refer to human antibiotics, which were thoroughly prohibited from being used as feed supplement to stimulate growth by the EU early in 2006, and only permitted antibiotics can be used for the treatment of sick chickens.
The professor added that, it is hard to comprehensively prohibit using of antibiotics in China, as most of them are produced in the country and cheap to use. In addition, breeders in China are lack of awareness of health risk of using antibiotics.
Statistics shows that more than 70% of medical antibiotics have been sold for animal use in the U.S., and scientists warn that their constant use to stimulate growth and prevent diseases will lead to more superbugs, which kill at least 23,000 in the country every year.
