Community | July 15, 2009 | 18 comments

Concerns growing over superbugs in our food

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31766160/ns/health-food_safety

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Apocalipstick
About two years ago, dozens of workers at a large chicken hatchery in Arkansas began experiencing mysterious skin rashes, with painful lumps scattered over their hands, arms, and legs.

"They hurt real bad," says Joyce Long, 48, a 32-year veteran of the hatchery, where until recently, workers handled eggs and chicks with bare hands. "When we went and got cultured, doctors told us we had a superbug."

Its name, she learned, was MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This form of staph bacteria developed a mutation that resists antibiotics (including methicillin), making it hard to treat, even lethal. According to the CDC, certain types of MRSA infections kill 18,000 Americans a year — more than die from AIDS.

Then in 2008, a new source and strain of MRSA emerged in the United States. Researcher Tara Smith, PhD, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa, studied two large Midwestern hog farms and found the strain, ST398, in 45 percent of farmers and 49 percent of pigs. The startling discovery — and the close connection between animal health and our own that it implied — caused widespread publicity and much official hand-wringing. To date, though, the government has yet to put a comprehensive MRSA inspection process in place, let alone fix our problematic meat-production system.

You may not have the same close contact with meat that a processing plant worker has, but scientists warn there is reason for concern: Most of us handle meat daily, as we bread chicken cutlets, trim fat from pork, or form chopped beef into burgers. Cooking does kill the microbe, but MRSA thrives on skin, so you can contract it by touching infected raw meat when you have a cut on your hand, explains Stuart Levy, MD, a Tufts University professor of microbiology and medicine. MRSA also flourishes in nasal passages, so touching your nose after touching meat gives the bug another way into your body, adds Smith.
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18 comments // Concerns growing over superbugs in our food

  • couldntfindausername
    • 0
      couldntfindausername  

    • What people don't seem to realise is that the reason we have MRSA is that they didn't die from plain old MSSA.

      You can guaran-frickin-tee that the death toll in a non-MRSA world would be an awful lot more than 18k.

    • 2 years ago
  • PajamaDan
    • 0
      PajamaDan  

    • As we incorporate technology and food stuffs,... our biological enemies like viruses, bacterium, insects & infections grow wiser, also. So,... in turn we spark their new mutations, immunities or evolutionary leaps. And as we combat the new strains,... "they" adapt. It's inevitable that we cannot have a utopia-cornucopia forever.
      But for some reason,... we think we can outsmart nature (or, what's left of it).

    • 2 years ago
  • Panzer_Tanzler
    • 0
      Panzer_Tanzler  

    • Just saw Food Inc. Some good points, but what a bunch of whiny babies.Get it through your crazy thick skulls, progress is always the most important thing. Without it, we would still be living in mud huts thinking the sun was a supreme deity.

    • 2 years ago
  • JosephJinx
  • div
  • JosephJinx
  • rockstarmillionaire
  • crob80227
    • 0
      crob80227  

    • This isn't really surprising.

      You can only raise so much cattle or chicken (in a confined space) before the system breaks down.

      Noticw how Amish farmers never have these kinds of problems?

      That's because raising 25 cows or chickens is safe. Raising 25,000 cowns or chickens in a small space designed to hold only 15,000 animals is NOT safe.

    • 2 years ago
  • dablaq
  • Mobius2012
  • JosephJinx
    • 0
      JosephJinx  

    • aww, Apoc. I was just about to post! Hehe.. quick-draw McGraw.

      Yeah, this is some scary scary stuff. I wouldn't be so worried, but it looks like there are some pretty reputable sources here.

      Looks like I might be goin vegetarian again for a while.

      I live in an area that is too small to have a Whole Foods market or anything. Wal-Mart and Homeland is about as good as it gets. :(

      Maybe it's a conspiracy to wipe out smaller communities? Haha...

      Hmm... :/

    • 2 years ago
  • Apocalipstick
    • 0
      Apocalipstick  
    • Image

    • Or just shop at Whole Foods. The one I shop at gets all of their produce locally. They do all the work for you. Yeah, it's expensive but not as expensive as being unhealthy.

    • 2 years ago
  • current89
  • masterzip
    • 0
      masterzip  
    • Apocalipstick:

      farmers markets carry local and the freshest produce out there. I am able to buy organic eggs that are not a month old(like most supermarkets), fish that was caught over the last 24 hours, fresh pasta, fresh bread, and produce, and I have actually compared prices and believe I am saving overall compared to major supermarkets. eating right can be affordable.

    • 2 years ago
  • Mobius2012
  • masterzip
  • onthebuzz
  • masterzip
    • 0
      masterzip  

    • buy local
      buy organic
      buy from trusted sources that do not use hormones, antibiotics, or toxic poisons to grow your food.
      know what the heck you are putting into your body!

      1lb. of ground beef in your average supermarket can come from over 100 different cows from 5 different states. Know what your government rules are for industry

    • 2 years ago
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