AfricaSpeaksHowcomyoucomRaceandHistoryRootsWomenTrinicenter
Homepage
Message Board
Buy Books
RELATED LINKSCOMMUNITYREASONING FORUMCHAT ROOMARCHIVES
Photo Gallery | About Us | Terms of Use | Register/Create a Profile  
This is a new script for this board. Some posters would have to re-register.
We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Contact us at: rastafarispeaks@yahoo.com


Follow us on twitter and on facebook at:
AfricaSpeaksRastafariSpeaksCheik Anta Diop

Rastafari Speaks

PfrankenFoods *LINK*

ALMOST HALF OF MEAT IN STORES MAY HAVE DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA!

47% of samples tested had the type of bacteria that most commonly causes staph infections. Food animals routinely fed antibiotics are a possible source.

By Marissa Cevallos and P.J. Huffstutter, Special to the Los Angeles Times

April 15, 2011, 4:32 p.m.

Meat in the U.S. may be widely contaminated with strains of drug-resistant bacteria, researchers reported Friday after testing 136 samples of beef, chicken, pork and turkey purchased at grocery stores.

Nearly half of the samples — 47% — contained strains of Staphylococcus aureus, the type of bacteria that most commonly causes staph infections. Of those bacteria, 52% were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

DNA testing suggested the animals were the source of contamination. Environmental health scientist Lance Price, the study's leader, said the animals most likely harbored these drug-resistant pathogens because antibiotics routinely are fed to livestock to promote growth and prevent disease in crowded pens on large farms.

"These findings really point to serious problems with the way food animals are raised in the U.S. today," said Price, who directs the Center for Food Microbiology and Environmental Health at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a nonprofit biomedical research center in Phoenix.

Last summer, the Food and Drug Administration urged the meat industry to cut back on antibiotic use out of concern that the practice breeds drug-resistant bacteria in stockyards and makes antibiotics less effective in humans.

But other scientists said it was premature to conclude that antibiotics in animal feed were to blame. About half of all humans have staph bacteria in their noses or throats, and a food handler with poor hygiene could introduce the pathogen to the food supply, said Beilei Ge, a food scientist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

The meat and poultry samples tested in the study represented 80 brands and were purchased in Los Angeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Flagstaff, Ariz., and Washington, D.C.

Scientists incubated the samples for up to 24 hours in a broth that was kept at human body temperature and used genetic tests to determine whether they contained the staph bacteria. Then they treated them with vancomycin, oxacillin, tetracycline and other antibiotics to determine whether they were resistant to the drugs.

The research was funded by the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, which opposes the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed.

About 11,000 people die every year from S. aureus infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than half of those deaths are from the hospital "superbug" methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or MRSA.

The direct risk that consumers may acquire a staph infection from meat can be reduced by cooking meat thoroughly and washing all foods and surfaces that come into contact with raw meat, whether or not it is resistant to antibiotics.

However, Caroline DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., said the study results suggest that consumers might benefit by wearing gloves when they handle raw meat. "It's making us rethink our advice to the public," she said.

The American Meat Institute, which represents producers, said Friday that the country's meat and poultry supply was safe. And data from the CDC show that cases of food-borne illness in the U.S. have declined 20% in the last decade.

William Marler, a leading food safety attorney, said it was helpful to test meat samples available in stores because the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service focused its testing on meat production facilities.

"It's good to see more people doing retail testing because it shows us that our meat is far less sanitary than most consumers would think," he said.

But the bigger threat to public health is that widespread antibiotic use in livestock could make the drugs increasingly ineffective in humans, Price said.

The American Medical Assn., the World Health Organization and other medical groups have warned that the misuse of antibiotics in food animal production may be creating a serious problem for human health by fostering development of drug-resistant bacteria.

Studies in Canada and Denmark show that taking antibiotics out of animal feed makes antibiotic-resistant bacteria less prevalent in both animals and people with no ill effects for animals or ranchers, Price said.

"Our lifesaving medications are being used as tools to make animals grow faster," Price said. "We must do everything we can to protect these antibiotics that protect our health."

Messages In This Thread

King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Columbus' Portuguese Helpers *LINK*
Was Tut a Melungeon? *LINK*
If Tut was European his body morphology needs work *LINK*
so interesting, thanks. *NM*
Origin of Appalachia's Melungeons *LINK*
"1/3 African genes in Europe, from prehistory..." *LINK*
Re: "1/3 African genes in Europe, from prehistory. *NM* *LINK*
anxiously awaiting your book . . . *NM*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
facetious?
My Apologies... *LINK*
Re: My Apologies...
Chakras *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . .
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . .
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . .
"Profiles in Catastrophism" *LINK*
Correction
Your Western Australoid Ancestors *NM* *LINK*
The real Wing-Men *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Blame the Parasite *LINK*
Re: Blame the Parasite *LINK*
Re: Blame the Parasite *LINK*
The Promise of an Equatorial/Equinoctial Existence *LINK*
Big Heads no evidence of superior intelligence *LINK*
HFCS = Fructose on Steroids *LINK*
Re: HFCS = Fructose on Steroids
Cattle 'cloned from dead animals' *LINK*
PfrankenFoods *LINK*
More Frankenfoods-Sucrose on Steroids *LINK*
Corn insecticide in mass bee deaths *LINK*
Re: HFCS = Fructose on Steroids *NM* *LINK*
Re: HFCS = Fructose on Steroids *NM* *LINK*
The Sunlight Vitamin *LINK*
Re: The Sunlight Vitamin *LINK*
Re: The Sunlight Vitamin *LINK*
Re: The Sunlight Vitamin *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
A case of history repeating... *NM* *LINK*
Re: A case of history repeating... *NM* *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
"Was Tut European?" *LINK*


FAIR USE NOTICE:
This site may at times contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml


Copyright © 2003-2014 RastafariSpeaks.com & AfricaSpeaks.com