Are There Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Lurking in Your Chicken?

If you buy your chicken from supermarkets in Canada, it's likely that you've been getting a little something extra along with it — a whole variety of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Researchers from Canada's CBC News "Marketplace" found that chicken purchased at supermarkets throughout Canada are often contaminated with drug-resistant bacteria. The researchers purchased 100 chicken samples from grocery stores in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Two-thirds of the samples had bacteria, which is not out of the ordinary, but all of the bacteria in the sampling were resistant to at least one antibiotic. Some of the bacteria were even resistant to eight different kinds of antibiotics. Some of the brands sampled were Lilydale, Maple Leaf Prime, Rava, and Loblaws says Care2.

Care2 reports more frightening findings as well. Think you're safe by buying antibiotic- free or organic chicken? I mean, it makes sense that something labeled as "antibiotic-free" should not be given antibiotics, and it follows that the meat should not be infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, right? Even chickens labeled as such contained these superbugs. The Chicken Farmers of Canada, however, say that they only use antibiotics judiciously. One organic farmer who's meat was tested claimed not to use any antibiotics whatsoever. He raises chicks organically, but buys them conventionally. According to Care2, the only way these chicks could have this resistance is if the eggs were injected with antibiotics before the chicks hatched. Someone please inform me how this is "judicious" use of the drugs.

And if you think that the situation is different in the States (or many other places, for that matter), think again: According to a Wired magazine article, researchers have found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in meats in Greece, Iceland, Ireland, and the E.U. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) participates in a monitoring system called the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, which found drug-resistant salmonella and enterococci in chicken breast in 2008 (the year of the most recent report). Worse still, these bacteria were resistant to drugs that you would get from your doctor, like tetracycline or penicillin.

We should absolutely be concerned with overuse of antibiotics in our food animals. While correct cooking kills bacteria, if contamination through improper handling happens before the bird or other meat is cooked, people could get extremely sick from these superbugs. And if this bacteria is resistant to most of the drugs that doctors prescribe, the situation could quickly turn fatal.

So just how do these animals get contaminated with drug-resistant bacteria? A wealth of antibiotics are given to livestock in factory farms whether the animals are sick or not. Farmers rely on these drugs to promote growth in animals and to prevent the spread of diseases that run rampant in factory farms' deplorable conditions.

The only way to solve the problem of superbugs in our food is to become responsible with our antibiotic use in livestock. One group that you'd think would be behind this push is the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). But irresponsibly, the group spoke out against legislation that would allow livestock to be treated with antibiotics only if animals were ill. The AVMA should be speaking out in the best interest of animals and our public health. Overmedicating livestock is a bad idea for people and for the animals themselves. Sign our petition, and tell the AVMA to stop supporting the over-drugging of livestock.

Photo credit: snowpea&bokchoi via Flickr