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Beef cuts are on display at a supermarket in New York, January 28, 2011. (Emmanuel Dunad/AFP/Getty Images)
In nearly half of meat in the U.S., a form of drug-resistant bacteria that could be harmful has been discovered, according to a new study published on Friday.
The bacteria in question is Staphylococcus aureus, a form of staph, which can cause a number of ailments in humans, according to a Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) report.
The study, which was published Friday in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, examined 136 samples and eight brands of meat and poultry from 26 grocery stores in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, and Washington D.C.
TGen found that 47 percent of meat and poultry samples taken had S. aureus. Within that bacteria sample, 52 percent was resistant to three types of antibiotics.
“For the first time, we know how much of our meat and poultry is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant Staph, and it is substantial,” Dr. Lance B. Price, the senior author of the study and the head of TGen’s Center for Food Microbiology and Environmental Health, said in a statement.
Staph can be killed by proper cooking but the study’s authors said that people should take extra care when handling meat and poultry products.
The staph likely contaminated the products via the animals themselves, said the study’s authors, citing DNA samples taken. Packed industrial-style farms are “ideal breeding grounds” for the drug-resistant bacteria, according to the study.
“The fact that drug-resistant S. aureus was so prevalent, and likely came from the food animals themselves, is troubling, and demands attention to how antibiotics are used in food-animal production today,” Dr. Price said.
TGen noted that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does routine evaluations of meat and poultry for various types of contaminants. However, S. aureus is not one of them.
“Antibiotics are the most important drugs that we have to treat Staph infections; but when Staph are resistant to three, four, five or even nine different antibiotics — like we saw in this study — that leaves physicians few options,” added Dr. Price.