British rivers are “awash” with antibiotic-resistant superbugs and drug residues linked to pollution from livestock farms, according to new research.

UK rivers near livestock farms are awash with superbugs and antibiotic residues, including in the idyllic River Wye, research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the gravest global public health threats. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, it is responsible for more than 35,000 deaths in the US each year, and 1.3 million globally.

Suppliers of beef to McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Walmart are sourcing meat from US farms that use antibiotics linked to the spread of dangerous superbugs, an investigation has found.

There are more than 1,000 US-style mega-farms in the UK, including some holding as many as a million animals, according to a new investigation. These mega-farms include poultry, pig, beef cattle and dairy units.

British supermarket pork has been infected with a potentially fatal superbug. The findings highlight the risks to consumers from overuse of antibiotics on some farms.

Xinuxi Mỹky says this region used to be a forest where different villages thrived. Only one now remains and the farms have cut into that land as well. “This pasture, where the whites live, was also our village, but now they are raising cattle."

On one side of the fence, amid dense forest, the Mỹky people grow their crops: cassava, pequi and cabriteiro fruit. On the other, ranchers raise cattle on devastated land that has been seized from the Indigenous community.

Although the USDA deems a certain level of salmonella and campylobacter within poultry acceptable, 12 major U.S. poultry companies — including poultry giants Perdue, Pilgrim’s Pride, Tyson, Foster Farms, and Koch Foods — have exceeded USDA standards for acceptable levels of salmonella multiple times since 2018

Joanne Canda-Alvarez found her nine-year-old son splayed out on his bedroom floor, unable to move and foaming at the mouth. The day before, Jayven had been playing golf with his family. Now he was completely paralysed by the sudden onset of an autoimmune disease that doctors linked to campylobacter.

U.S. poultry suppliers sold tens of thousands of products contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria between 2015 and 2020. Over half of those products were contaminated with strains of antibiotic-resistant superbugs—an escalating issue exacerbated by poor hygiene conditions.

Cheap meat has become a way of life in much of Europe, but the full price is being paid across Latin America as vast soya plantations and their attendant chemicals lead to poisonings and violence.

Inside the farmhouse, piles of paperwork are laid out across a vast table; print outs, reports, statistics, scientific research, correspondence. Pedersen shows me photos — there’s more piglets with spinal deformities, their back legs dragging on the ground; others have visible problems with their faces, limbs or tails. There’s even a siamese twin — two animals joined at the head.