Researchers in Flagstaff are looking at what happens when farmers routinely feed antibiotics to the beef, chicken, pork, turkey, shrimp and salmon you might find at the local grocery store.
They’re buying meat and seafood from grocery stores here and in Los Angeles, Florida, Chicago, and the District of Columbia, to investigate what kinds of bacteria live on it.
If past testing for different bacteria is any indication, they could find some ugly stuff: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria capable of infecting you by kitchen cross-contamination, even if you’re a vegetarian living with omnivores.
“We think that it is contributing significantly to the antibiotic resistance problem in people,” said Lance B. Price, a biologist and director of a Translational Genomics (TGen) North unit that does research bearing on human health and the organisms living on us.
Animals in many commercial feeding operations in the United States — Europe, including the world’s top pork producer, Denmark, has banned the practice — feed their animals antibiotics routinely when they are well, sometimes mixed with food, to help them grow faster and remain healthy in crowded conditions.
“In industrial food animal production, one of their standard tools is to use antibiotics,” Price said.
The low doses of antibiotics over time kills less-resistant gut bacteria in the animals, leaving a tougher strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to reproduce. Problem is, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria from the uncooked meat in the United States has the potential to eventually enter a human body when picked up off an unclean countertop or cutting board, Price said. But some of the more inexpensive and widely used antibiotics are useless if you need them to fight an infection.
This has been the case for vegetarians, some of whom have had antibiotic-resistant E. coli later traced to chickens, Price said, and for poultry workers.
More at: Flagstaff lab looks into antibiotics in livestock (CTPost)
Animal Antibiotics a Threat? – CBS News Video
Antibiotic-free Animals – CBS News Video
Once again, here is more proof to purchase meat from a farmer you know and can ask questions to. You might pay a little more money at the farmers market, but your health is priceless, do the math.
AutonomyAcres.com
Better yet, Visit the farm. Get to see where the animals grow up. Witness what they’re being fed.