May 23, 2008

Scientists find high levels of antibiotic resistant pathogens in US chickens
 

A recent US research discovers that poultry products contain campylobacter jejuni, which had developed a resistant to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin.

The research, conducted within the System Division of Agriculture at the University of Arkansas, found that 85 percent of the chickens bought from one store had countable levels of campylobacter, including non-pathogenic types, with 27 percent of it resistant to ciprofloxacin.

Ciprofloxacin is a synthetic antibiotic used by humans to battle bacterial infections.

The research also found 46 percent of chickens bought from a second store had detectable levels of campylobacter with 6 percent of them resistant to ciprofloxacin. 

Leading researcher Ramakrishna Nannapaneni said ciprofloxacin has never been used in animals but it is closely related to two other antibiotics, enrofloxacin and sarafloxacin. Both were approved for use in poultry before their ban in September 2005.

"When campylobacter became resistant to enrofloxacin or sarafloxacin, it also showed cross-resistance to other fluoroquinolones (a group of antibiotics), such as in human medicine against ciprofloxacin," Nannepaneni said.

Chickens from the two stores were found to have different levels of campylobacter and resistance to ciprofloxacin. Nannepaneni believes the difference is due to variations in packing and storage conditions at the two stores, or differences in management of the poultry before harvesting.

"There is a clear need for monitoring the persistence and quantitative reduction of the total antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter loads in the food chain, particularly on raw animal food products, in efforts to control human campylobacteriosis," Nannapaneni said.

The researchers tested 392 raw chickens bought from two Fayetteville grocery stores each week for nearly a year.

Campylobacter is common in raw poultry, but campylobacter jejuni is predominantly pathogenic to humans, reports Science Daily.