Flies and cockroaches carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria from factory farms, study finds

[marmar]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WJA9vqqvGkQ/SF0TpdfvTuI/AAAAAAAABqY/O6woSu_5kFo/s400/Giant+Cockroach.JPG



from Grist:



Flies and cockroaches carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria from factory farms, study finds

by Tom Philpott
25 Feb 2011 3:24 PM


What sort of antibiotic-resistant pathogens are growing on factory farms, along with all the cheap pork chops and chicken wings? And what level of threat do they pose to our health?

Well, we know that in total, factory-farm animals consume a jaw-dropping four times as many antibiotics as do people in the United States, thanks to diligent reporting by Maryn McKenna and Ralph Loglisci and work by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.).

And we know that a kind of antibiotic-resistant staph infection called MRSA now kills more people than AIDS -- and infects people who never set foot in a hospital, which is the site where MRSA is thought to have originated. We also know, due to the stellar work of Iowa State University researcher Tara Smith, that pigs in confined animal feedlot operations, and the workers who tend them, routinely carry MRSA strains (her paper can be found here).

We also know that, by the FDA's own reckoning, meat on grocery store shelves is routinely infected by pathogens resistant to multiple antibiotics (again, McKenna's work brought the FDA's perhaps intentionally obscure report to light). ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-25-flies-cockroaches-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-factory-farms

[eppur_se_muova]

1. This is what worries me about irradiation of food ...

not the food itself, but everything in the vicinity of the irradiator that doesn't go through the full treatement but gets enough radiation to cause mutations in resident bacteria. Between the "total kill" zone and the radiation-free zone lies a belt where evolution will be accelerated by induced mutations. Of course, food-borne pathogens will be the ones most likely to be introduced into that zone. Not a good combination.

[flvegan]

2. But bacon tastes good!