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When you buy raw meat at the grocery store, you often bring more than dinner.
"The chances that you buy a product contaminated with drug-resistant bacteria is very high," said Dr. Lance Price. Price is the founding director of the George Washington University Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, one of the leading research laboratories of the Milken School of Public Health.
"We raise 9 billion animals for animal consumption for slaughter and processing into meat," said Price. "When we regularly give them low doses of antibiotics, we only fuel the growth of bacteria, drug-resistant bacteria, which can spread among these animals, and then they are distributed in all the grocery stores of the country. country. "[19659003] It is estimated that 70% of the antibiotics used in America are donated to livestock that end up on your plate.
" Livestock producers must make caution when they use antibiotics, "said Price," just use them to prevent the infections they cause by raising animals to make them sick. "We need to raise animals to improve their health and we do not need to use antibiotics. "
Last month, raw beef and chicken contaminated with antibiotic-resistant salmonella were deco uverts in 36 states. Millions of pounds of meat were recalled and hundreds of people became ill.
So we wondered if it was easy to find antibiotic-resistant bacteria if we did our own random sampling.
In the end, very easy. [19659003] We purchased two dozen poultry samples from four major national retailers: chicken bads and minced chicken, ground turkey, turkey burgers and drumsticks
In one afternoon, we bought, labeled and packed each package We deliver our coolers to Dr. Price's lab.
The tests were carried out in two phases.
First, Dr. Price's lab identified the four most common bacteria that can cause food-borne illnesses: E. coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, and Campylobacter.
Next, they determined whether the bacteria were resistant to antibiotics.
Two weeks later, the results were as follows: 88% of our samples contained antibiotic-resistant bacteria. And not just a guy.
The combinations of E. Coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter and Staphylococcus were resistant to antibiotics two to 17 times per sample. Medicines considered to be among the most important on the planet, such as amoxicillin, Cipro and tetracycline, have often been rendered useless.
"Ninety percent of the samples you gave us were positive for E. coli," said Price. "We probably have animal droppings in all that meat, but it's also an important pathogen and when we look at what E. coli was resistant to, one of the drugs against which it was was the most resistant, or most often, was tetracycline C – is also the drug that we use most often for animal production in the United States. "
The World Health Organization considers that tetracycline is one of the most important antibiotics on the planet. It is also clbadified in the category of antibiotics. "Critics" for human health have failed in most of our tests against bacteria found in supermarket meat.
And the lab found more than we expected.
"On three of the turkey samples, we found Methicillin Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA resistant, I mean, that got me a little shocked," said Price. "When they have gone beyond our skin they can infect our blood, they can infect our hearts and kill us In the United States, at some point, probably still today, MRSA kills more people than HIV. "
The problem antibiotic-resistant bacteria, says Price, lies in the fact that it exists everywhere in conventional meat production, making types of meat and brands and irrelevant stores.
And the government is well aware
Every year, the USDA tests thousands of pieces of meat in grocery stores in search of antibiotic-resistant bacteria through the National Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System. ens, or NARMS: The data goes largely unnoticed by the public.
"The resistance is real. The resistance is here. The snow. We see it. It kills 23,000 Americans each year, "Dawn Undurraga said.
For the environmental working group, Undurraga badyzed more than 47,000 government-run bacteria tests on supermarket meat. These data were used to identify trends and impacts on public health.
The latest report indicates that 75% of bacteria found in grocery store meat are resistant to antibiotics, including 73% of salmonella on minced turkeys. government tests, 71% of pork chops were infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Good meat cooking will kill bacteria, but Price says that bacteria usually spread far beyond the meat, From the grocery basket to the store to the kitchen.
"So, you open a chicken package," said Price. "You have a contaminated package to treat, right? So you open the trash, you've contaminated that. You are going to wash your hands you open a tap. You have just contaminated the faucet. You will pump the soap, contaminate it. You will wash your hands very well. You close the tap, recontaminate your hands. , go make a salad. It is the ease with which it is possible to spread these bacteria in the kitchen. "
It is not disputed that antibiotic resistance is complicated.According to Price, while the number of antibiotics administered to farm animals is four times that of humans, excessive prescribing to the physician contributes to the problem
Drugs, some of which no longer work, are all medications that medical science supports to stop treatable infections.
"This is a serious threat to health "If we do nothing, we could enter a post-antibiotic era in which things like a scratched knee or pneumonia could still kill people." "
In conventional breeding, very few regulations prevent the industry from over-use of antibiotics, leaving each company to make critical decisions about public health. The Obama administration has made significant progress in this area: it has banned antibiotics only for animals to grow faster, but the industry has found alternatives.
"Our antibiotics, which saved life for decades, have been used to make animals grow faster, "said Price." But there's still this big flaw that allows food producers to give animals Antibiotic animals to prevent diseases.And this is a sufficient loophole for 34 million pounds [of antibiotics to] .Therefore, they raise animals in a way that makes them sick. s, then they justify the antibiotics. "
" We are sending a message to the world that everything is fine, "said Price." And that will come back to bite us. "
Declaration of the National Chicken Council:
" More than half of the chicken produced in the United States is now produced without antibiotics. According to FDA guidelines, antibiotics are only administered to treat and prevent diseases in livestock, only by prescription of a licensed veterinarian. If an antibiotic is used on the farm, the federal rules require that antibiotics have cleaned the animals' systems before they can be slaughtered. For approved antibiotics, the FDA and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) are implementing extensive monitoring and testing programs to ensure that food products purchased at the grocery store do not contain antibiotic residues.
"According to the latest FDA report, Salmonella and the prevalence of Campylobacter in retail chicken samples continue to decline, and both are at their lowest level since the start of NARMS testing. [19659003] any raw agricultural product, whether it is fruits, vegetables, fish, meat or poultry, is susceptible to naturally occurring bacteria likely to render somebody a sick person Whether it is badly handled or cooked.
"We all play an important role in the food security of our families and people can take certain steps at home to significantly reduce the risks. For raw chicken, this means washing your hands before and after contact and not laminating other surfaces, cutting boards, knives, etc. and cook the chicken at a minimum internal temperature of 165 ° F. Even though bacteria can resist certain antibiotics, they do not withstand the proper heat of an oven or grill. "[19659003] Statement from the Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, KatieRose McCullough, Ph.D., MPH at the North American Meat Institute:
" It is fundamental that raw agricultural products, like poultry, contain bacteria and it's our job to reduce bacteria to the lowest level possible.The US Department of Agriculture data show that our efforts to reduce bacteria function and data from the Center for Disease Control show that foodborne illness in humans also decreases.
Like humans, animals sometimes need antibiotics and are administered under veterinary control to ensure that they are used appropriately.When antibiotics are administered, strict withdrawal periods are followed before the birds are turned into food. Properly tested by expert veterinarians, antibiotics are very effective in destroying bacteria and ensuring the health of animals. But sometimes, some bacteria survive and become resistant to an antibiotic. The good news is that resistance to a single antibiotic does not mean that a germ is resistant to all antibiotics.
Meat and poultry scientists are continually striving to develop the best possible strategies for targeting and destroying bacteria that can cause disease while preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics. Although no food-borne illness is acceptable, the fact is that Americans consume billions of servings of poultry each year and more than 99.99% of these servings are consumed safely. The public should follow good safe handling and cooking practices and know that poultry producers are committed to providing products that are as safe as possible. "
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