A recent study found that “superbugs” – bacteria that can cause serious infections in people – are present in chicken, turkey, beef and pork from supermarkets. In fact, 40% of the meat samples tested had Multi-drug resistant E. coli strains. This information will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases which will take place in Copenhagen from April 15th to 18th 2023.
Drug-resistant infections can be very deadly around the world. In fact, they are killing an estimated 700,000 people every year and that number is predicted to go up to 10 million by 2050 if we don’t act now. The World Health Organization (WHO) believes this problem is one of the biggest health risks for humans.
Bacteria that cannot be treated by antibiotics can travel from animals to people when we eat food. However, the information about how much of these antibiotic-resistant bugs are present in our food is not available to everyone because of businesses trying to protect their secrets.
Researchers at the University of Santiago de Compostela-Lugo, Lugo, Spain, conducted a series of experiments to check how much dangerous bacteria (commonly called Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli) could be found in meat sold in Spanish supermarkets. These bacteria can make people very sick with things such as sepsis and urinary tract infections.
In 2020, scientists studied 100 types of meat from the grocery stores in Oviedo. This included 25 pieces each of chicken, turkey, beef and pork. 73% of the meat had E. coli levels that were safe to eat.
Almost half (49%) of the meat products we tested contained antibiotic-resistant and potentially dangerous E. coli bacteria, so we looked at 82 different samples. Additionally, 10 out of 100 meat products had a kind of harmful bacteria called K. pneumoniae (7 from chicken, 2 from turkey, 1 from pork).
Out of 100 tested meat products, 40 of them tested positive for E. coli bacteria. A total of 56 E. coli bacteria out of 82 had special germs in them. These germs are called extended-spectrum beta-lactamases which make the bacteria resistant to most antibiotics like penicillins, cephalosporins and aztreonam.
Out of the different types of meat, turkey had the most ESBL-producing E. coli at 68%, followed by chicken at 56%, beef at 16% and pork at 12%. This means there are more germs in poultry than other kinds of meat due to their different production and slaughter methods.
27% of the meat products have a type of bacteria called E. coli (ExPEC). This special type of E. coli has genes which can make people sick outside their gut, like in your bladder or bloodstream. This same kind of E. coli is the main cause for urinary tract infections (UTIs), adult blood infections (sepsis) and it is also the second most common cause for baby brain infections (meningitis).
Six percent of the meat products tested had a type of E. coli called UPEC, and this type has special traits that help it give people urinary tract infections. One percent of the meat products had E. coli which carried a gene called mcr-1; this gene makes the bacteria immune to antibiotics which are normally used when all other types of antibiotics don’t work.
Scientists already reported that chicken and turkey had high levels of bacteria with the ability to cause dangerous illnesses or infection that cannot be killed by some antibiotics. Now, their new research suggests it may also be present in beef and pork.
Therefore, they are suggesting to keep checking the levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, like ExPEC E. coli, found in meat products.
Dr Mora says that it is very important to protect people who are buying food from farms. To do this, surveillance lab methods can be used to study germs and bacteria on animals and meat products, especially with the new rules the EU have made about using antibiotics when treating animals.
Farmers can use strategies like vaccines to get rid of certain dangerous bacteria in animals that produce food. Doing this reduces the chances of customers getting sick if they eat the meat, and keeps everybody safe.
Consumers can help keep food safe by being careful. This includes making sure cold food stays cold and hot food stays hot until it’s cooked all the way, putting cooked food in the refrigerator and washing knives, cutting boards, and other utensils used to handle raw foods after use to stop germs from spreading. If you follow these steps, eating meat will be both a pleasure and totally risk-free!
The article, titled “Microbiological Risk Assessment of Turkey and Chicken Meat for Consumer”, explains the differences between turkey and chicken meat when it comes to things like how resistant they are to certain drugs, how much of a certain kind of bacteria (called E. coli) is present in either type of meat, as well as whether or not one type had more hybrid types than the other. It was published on October 19th 2020 by an organization called Food Control.
