Do you think ground turkey is a healthy alternative to
hamburger?Well think again – a report
published by Consumer Reports showed deadly bacteria in almost all ground turkey
samples .To make matters worse, many of
the bacteria found were resistant antibiotics.
Some of the samples even contained the deadly virus MRSA (methicillin-resistant
staphylococcus aureus).
The Consumer Reports study tested for
five types of bacteria within the 257 samples of ground turkey which
were purchased at various stores and major retailers across the nation. Bacteria from fecal matter was found on most
of the samples, and one or more of the following types of bacteria could be
found on 90% of the samples.
1. Campylobacter
2. Salmonella
3. Staphylococcus aureus
4. E. coli
5. enterocuccus
It is interesting to note that
turkeys who were raised without antibiotics had less antibiotic resistant bacteria
than the turkeys who received daily antibiotic dosing, a common practice by commercial
turkey farms believed to promote growth. However, even the organic and antibiotic-free
samples had a high rate of bacteria contamination.
Testing of grocery-store meat and poultry is showing an
alarmingly high prevalence of MRSA and other antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, can cause deadly skin infections that can also spread to heart, lungs, blood, or bone. Nationwide
tests by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen)
confirmed 47% of meat and poultry samples were contaminated with S. aureus, of
which over half were resistant to a variety of antibiotics. In another recent study, the largest sampling
of raw meat products to date indicated that the superbug MRSA, (methicillin
resistant S. aureus) is found in 7% of store-bought pork.Link to Science Daily report here.
These dangerous superbugs are being created by the liberal use of
antibiotics by industrial farms to increase growth rates. The deadly germs are then spread by handling
practices at the plants. According to a
report from the Union of Concerned
Scientists, an estimated 70% of U.S. antibiotics are used for non-medical uses by farm industries,
primarily for growth enhancement. Densely-packed concentrated animal feeding
operations (CAFOs) are the breeding grounds for drug-resistant bacteria that
move from animals to to grocery store meat counters.
DNA testing has proven that the food animals
themselves are a major source of contamination.
However, the meat handling plants are also a source of contamination, as
the meat sampling study of pork showed no
significant difference in MRSA contamination between pork raised with or without
antibiotics.
