How likely is meat to harbor drug-resistant bacteria?
In October, a study by the Food and Drug Administration found that 20 percent of supermarket samples of ground beef, pork, chicken, and turkey were contaminated with Salmonella. Even more worrisome, 84 percent of the Salmonella were resistant to at least one antibiotic and half were resistant to at least three antibiotics. Sixteen percent were resistant to the drug of choice for treating Salmonella infections in children. So we not only have to worry about getting Salmonella poisoning from food if we don t prepare it properly. We also have to worry that it would be harder to treat food poisoning because the Salmonella is antibiotic-resistant. Q: Are bacteria other than Salmonella and E. coli resistant to antibiotics because the drugs are used in livestock and poultry? A: Yes. One out of six Campylobacter infections are now resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics like Cipro, which are used both in humans and poultry. And that s a serious problem, because Campylobacter causes more food
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