April 22, 2013
Report discovers US meat contain bacteria resistant to antibiotics
A new report states that more than half of samples of ground turkey, pork chops and ground beef collected from supermarkets for testing by the US federal government contained bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
The government published the findings in February, but they received scant attention until the Environmental Working Group issued its report, "Superbugs Invade American Supermarkets," which was partly underwritten by Applegate, which sells organic and antibiotic-free "natural" meats.
"The numbers are pretty striking," said Dawn Undurraga, the nutritionist for the group, a health research and advocacy organisation. "It really raises a question about the antibiotics we are using in raising animals for meat."
Academic veterinarians who work with the International Food Information Council, financed in part by major food companies, and with the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, which receives some financing from veterinary pharmaceutical companies, criticised the report as misleading.
"The No. one misunderstanding about antibiotics in animal agriculture is that it is not understood well enough that antibiotics are used to keep animals healthy," said Randall Singer, a professor of veterinary science at the University of Minnesota.
Singer noted the limited number of samples in the federal data, 480 samples each of ground turkey, pork chops and ground beef, and chicken breasts, wings and thighs, compared with the huge amount of meat sold in the US. "We should not assume that when we find resistance to antibiotics in humans, it means it was caused by the use of antibiotics in animals," he said.
Many animals grown for meat are fed diets containing antibiotics to promote growth and reduce costs, as well as to prevent and control illness. Public health officials in the US and in Europe, however, are warning that the consumption of meat containing antibiotics contributes to resistance in humans. A growing public awareness of the problem has led to increased sales of antibiotic-free meat.
The Agriculture Department has confirmed that almost 80% of all antibiotics sold in the US are used in animal agriculture, and public health authorities around the world increasingly are warning that antibiotic resistance is reaching alarming levels.
"We do not have a problem with treating animals with antibiotics when they are sick," Undurraga said. "But just feeding them antibiotics to make them get bigger faster at a lower cost poses a real problem for public health."
The FDA has recommended that the use of antibiotics in farm animals be "limited to those uses that are considered necessary for assuring animal health," but its guidance is only voluntary. Supermarkets increasingly are labelling meat that does not contain antibiotics, just one sign of the growing consumer awareness of the issue.
