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Thinking of grilling a steak this weekend? Well, don’t read this, then: a disturbing new study revealed that about a quarter of all meat and poultry sampled from around the United States have drug-resitant strains of Staphylococcus aureus.
About half — 47% of the samples — contained S. aureus, the researchers reported Friday in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Of those bacteria, 52% were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics. DNA testing suggested the animals were the source of contamination. The research was funded by the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming.
"The fact that drug-resistant S. aureus was so prevalent, and likely came from the food animals themselves, is troubling, and demands attention to how antibiotics are used in food-animal production today," said Lance Price, lead author of the study and director of TGen’s Center for Food Microbiology and Environmental Health, said in a news release.
Remember the melamine contamination problem in China that killed at least 3 babies and made 50,000 others sick?
Well, after that happened, the FDA quietly tested US-made formula and found trace contaminations of melamine. The US government didn’t disclose the tests, until The Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request:
Traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been detected in samples of top-selling U.S. infant formula, but federal regulators insist the products are safe. The Food and Drug Administration said last month it was unable to identify any melamine exposure level as safe for infants, but a top official said it would be a "dangerous overreaction" for parents to stop feeding infant formula to babies who depend on it.
"The levels that we are detecting are extremely low," said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "They should not be changing the diet. If they’ve been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That’s in the best interest of the baby."
Link – Thanks Pax!
