"MRSA Superbugs in Meat"
As a rule, high-ranking public-health officials try to avoid apocalyptic descriptors.
So it’s worrying to hear those like the Director of the CDC warn
of a coming health “nightmare” and a “catastrophic threat.”
A number of prominent publications recently warn of the threat of antibiotic resistance.
The CDC estimates that at a minimum, more than two million people
are sickened every year with antibiotic-resistant infections in the United States,
with at least 23,000 dying as a result.
We may be at the dawn of a post-antibiotic era.
Achievements in modern medicine, such as surgery and the treatment of preterm babies,
which we today take for granted, would not be possible
without access to effective treatment for bacterial infections.
For example, without antibiotics, the rate of postoperative infection after a procedure
like a hip replacement would be 40-50% and about 1 in 3 of those patients would die.
That's like Russian roulette odds.
So the so-called worst case scenarios where resistant infections
could cost like $50 billion a year might still be an underestimate.
From cradle to grave, antibiotics have become pivotal
in safeguarding the overall health of human society.
So the dire phrasing from head officials may be warranted.
There are now infections like carbapenem-resistent enterobacter
resistant to nearly ALL antibiotics, even the so-called drugs of last resort.
Worryingly, some of these last resort drugs are being used extensively in animal agriculture.
According to the World Health Organization, more antibiotics are fed to farmed animals
than is used to treat disease in human patients.
Doctors overprescribe antibiotics, but HUGE amounts of antibiotics
are used in fish farming and other intensive animal agriculture,
up to four times the amount used in human medicine.
Why...?
Suboptimum growth to slaughter weight caused by unsanitary conditions
can be compensated with by addition of antibiotics to feed.
Instead of relieving any stressful overcrowded unhygienic conditions,
it may be cheaper to just dose the animals with drugs.
In this way, factory farms are driving the growth
of antibiotic-resistant organisms that cause human diseases.
This may help bolster the industry’s bottom line,
but in the process, bacteria are developing antimicrobial resistance,
which affects human health.
In the United States, the FDA reports that 80% of antibiotics
in the United States are used in food animals,
mainly to promote growth in this kind of high-density production.
This can select for antibiotic-resistant bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staph aureus,
“mersa,” or MRSA, considered a serious threat in the United States.
These industrial pig operations may provide optimal conditions
for the introduction and transmission of MRSA.
US pork producers are currently permitted
to use 29 different antibiotic drugs in feed— without a prescription!
They are currently added to about 90% of pigs starter feeds.
When animals receive unnecessary antibiotics, bacteria can become resistant to the drugs,
then travel on meat to the store, and end up causing hard-to-treat illnesses in people.
MRSA present in retail raw meat may serve as a possible source of bacterial infections
for food preparers in the food industry
and the hands of consumers in the home, unless they wear gloves.
Once MRSA gets into our homes on meat, it can transfer to our cutting boards, knives,
and onto our skin at a rate similar to the rate of transmission
from touching an infected patient contaminated with MRSA.
Washing of hands after touching raw pork is advised.