MRSA Superbugs in U.S. Retail Meat

MRSA, methicillin resistant Staph aureus, now kills more Americans every year than AIDS, and it’s invaded our meat supply. Last week, the largest survey of U.S. retail meat was published and found the highest level of contamination to date. Three hundred ninety-five pork samples were collected off the shelves of a total of 36 stores in Iowa, Minnesota, and New Jersey. Twenty-six (6.6%) were carrying MRSA.

In the hospitals where I’ve worked, MRSA requires contact precautions, meaning you can’t even walk into a MRSA-positive patient’s room unless you’re gloved, masked, and gowned. Yet we continue to let our children run up and down the meat aisle even though that’s where MRSA contamination has now been confirmed. For more on this phenomenon, today’s NutritionFacts.org video pick covers both MRSA and C. diff (Clostridium difficile):

We don’t yet know how many people are being infected by meat. Quoting from the study’s conclusion: “unknown is the frequency of MRSA transmission to humans, via colonization or infection from food service professional and consumer handling and consumption of raw, undercooked and cooked MRSA-positive meat.”

The new study found no significant difference in MRSA prevalence in conventional pork (6.3% contaminated) versus alternative “raised without antibiotics” pork products (7.4% contamination). The researchers suggest this may be due to cross-contamination in the slaughterplant. Previous studies have implicated pig confinement operations as particularly risky. Watch the 90 second video Airborne MRSA for more on the role of swine CAFOs.

For background on the threat of routinely feeding antibiotics to farm animals, watch Drug Residues in Meat (6 min) and U.S. Meat Supply Flying at Half Staph (3 min). As the Director-General of the World Health Organization recently warned about multidrug-resistant pathogens like MRSA, “the world is heading toward a post-antibiotic era in which many common infections will no longer have a cure and, once again, will kill unabated.”

Michael Greger, M.D.

Image credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Carmen S.

5:38PM PST on Feb 22, 2012

this is scary, thanks for bringing it to attention

send a green star

Rosie L.

9:48AM PST on Feb 8, 2012

being vegan is a wonderful gift to our beautiful planet

Helane S.

5:37PM PST on Feb 2, 2012

the rest of my 2/2/12 comment:

Prion diseases are known as transmissible/bovine spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs, BSEs - think mad cow). AD is a sister disease to mad cow and to "sporadic" (and most likely "variant") Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease. These diseases are caused by eating prion infected meat - primarily,( in US), the source is probably huge vats of commercially processed hamburger, which may contain parts of 50 to 100 animals, and may include one or more "downer cow" carcasses. "Downers" are the animals most likely to be infected with prion disease. The USDA admits there are over 1.9 million "downers" in the US each year. Only about 5000 are tested before being rendered (into food for our pets and other animals). www.sludgevictims.com/prions/downers.html

DYING FOR A HAMBURGER - MODERN MEAT PROCESSING AND THE EPIDEMIC OF
ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE - JULY 2005 -Dr. Murray Waldman coroner for the City of Toronto and on staff at University of Toronto and Marjorie Lamb, Toronto, writer, broadcaster, and author of several books. (Inexpensive used copies available at Amazon.com)

Excerpt: PAGE 143 - "HOW DANGEROUS ARE PRIONS?

"The degree of infectivity in tissues such as brain is staggering. In experimental animals, one gram (about one-thirtieth of an ounce) of brain contains an amount of prions sufficient to infect well over one billion individuals."

Another excellent source for more information on prions in our food supply:
www.healthydepar

5:34PM PST on Feb 2, 2012

Thanks to all of you who wrote to comment on my post about Alzheimer's Disease (AD) being a prion disease.

[In October 2011, Dr. Claudio Soto, Univ. of Texas, published his research finding that AD is an infective, contagious, transmissible prion disease. Dr. Soto's report confirmed earlier research by other scientists who had come to the same conclusion. www.alzheimers-prions.com/ ]

The Silence from the main stream media, medical community, government (USDA, EPA, FDA, CDC, DOD, etc.) has been deafening. There are over 6 million AD victims in the US, with a new case every 69 seconds. Rates for early-onset (age 30 - 65) AD are soaring. Parkinson's has also been identified as a prion disease. And it is not just adults - Dr. David Westmark, Alberta (Canada) Prion Institute is researching Autism (and ALS) as prion diseases. www.prioninstitute.ca/index.php?page=webpages&menucat=42&id=26&action=displaypage&side=1

Autism in California is skyrocketing - from less than 14,000 in 2000 to 70,000 in 2010. www.care2.com/causes/is-there-an-autism-epidemic-not-exactly-but.html#ixzz1gLd7lzqa Many researchers believe there is a link between the soaring Autism cases and the meat from downer cattle furnished to the CA school lunch program:
"U.S. GOVERNMENT SUES WESTLAND/HALLMARK MEAT OVER USDA CERTIFIED DEADSTOCK DOWNER COW SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM"

disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=7498;article=3848;

www.opposingviews.com/i/prio

Brian M.

1:16PM PST on Feb 2, 2012

Only locally-produced, sustainable, organic beef can be considered safe. Know the people producing your meat.

G A R.

3:47PM PST on Feb 1, 2012

one faction wanting more government oversight, another faction wanting less......

I was at the local home improvement mega store recently, and I watched as a couple loaded bag after bag of steer manure into their trunk. I asked if they were starting a vegetable garden, they said yes and wanted to improve the soil. I just watched and wondered what was in that steer manure now that our factory farmed ruminates are fed their own meat protein instead of being natural grass eaters...... now this MRSA thing..

conen j.

4:59PM PST on Jan 31, 2012

This is the 21st century and we are experiencing these problems - we would all be better off
back in the early days when none of these things happened!

Cody L.

2:52PM PST on Jan 31, 2012

"Cases of MRSA have increased in livestock animals. CC398 is a new clone of MRSA that has emerged in animals and is found in intensively reared production animals (primarily pigs, but also cattle and poultry), where it can be transmitted to humans. Although being dangerous to humans CC398 is often asymptomatic in food-producing animals.[12]

A 2011 study reported 47% of the meat and poultry sold in surveyed U.S. grocery stores was contaminated with S. aureus and, of those, 52%—or 24.4% of the total—were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics. "Now we need to determine what this means in terms of risk to the consumer," said Dr. Keim, a co-author of the paper"

So not only pigs, but mostly pigs.

I'm curious on how often it affects eaters. Not that I really have to worry about my own health... cause I'm a vegan.... but if I am warning people I at least want to have some data.

Joanne M.

7:10PM PST on Jan 30, 2012

Is it just pork? One of my cats has health problems and a lot of his diet is a commercially prepared raw meat diet.

J. G.

5:49PM PST on Jan 30, 2012

@Jilly B. -- take a B12 supplement. Good info about that here: http://nutritionfacts.org/blog/2011/08/30/3964/. Google "vegan recipes" and you'll see a TON of sites. Here's a great step-by-step starter guide: http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/vsk/vegetarian-starter-kit And check out meetup.com to see if there's a veg meetup group near you--members in your area can help with local shopping/dining tips. Big hugs to you!!! I've been vegan for ten years, never felt better (my body as well as my conscience). Oh, and I also recommend Carol Adams' book, Living Among Meateaters--great psychological insights, and recipes in the back too. Love the berry cobbler. :)