Chinese children who have higher levels of veterinary antibiotics in their urine are more likely to be obese, said a latest report.
Researchers from Shanghai's Fudan University examined urine samples from 586 schoolchildren aged 8-11 in Shanghai in 2013 and found 21 common antibiotics in their urine. These were split into categories including antibiotics which are used on humans (HAs) and antibiotics which are only used in a veterinary context (VAs).
Based on the concentrations of antibiotics found in the children's urine, they were divided into three groups. They found that the children in the group with the highest levels of VAs in their urine were 1.99 to 3 times more likely to be obese than other groups.
The researchers claimed in their paper, published in the February 5 issue of Environment International magazine, that children are largely exposed to VAs through their food and drinking water.
Research into this topic first began in 2010. Wang Hexing and Wang Na, researchers from the School of Public Health, Fudan University, and lead authors of the paper, established their own method of monitoring urinary antibiotics for this study.
Wang told Global Times that "for now we can only say that some association has been found between VAs and childhood obesity, but we cannot say it's a causal relationship between them.
According to a 2013 report, the annual usage of antibiotics in China was around 162,000 tons, accounting for half of global antibiotics use. Fifty two percent of the antibiotics used were VAs, and 48 percent were HAs. Over 50,000 tons of antibiotics ended up in the country's soil or water.
