Pork: Contaminated with Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria?

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Here is a study published in Consumer Reports that looked at the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in pork. They tested 198 samples of ground pork and pork chops, all consumer products, and found that 69% were contaminated with Yersinia enterocolitica, 11% were contaminated with Enterococcus, 7% were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus and 4% were contaminated with Salmonella.

Of the whopping 69% of products contaminated with Yersinia enterocolitica, 39% were resistant to 2-3 antibiotics. Sixty-four percent of the Staphylococcus aureus isolates were resistant to 2-4 antibiotics and 38% of the Salmonella isolates were resistant to 5 antibiotics.

These findings highlight the issue of antibiotic use in the food industry driving antibiotic resistance in general. As antibiotics are used in a population of animals (pigs, for instance), antibiotic susceptible bacteria are killed off (thus 'selecting out' resistant bacteria); these bacteria are then shed into the environment, contaminate fertilizer and can contaminate food products such as the pork noted in this study. Humans then can become colonized or sick when they come in contact with these organisms. A person who ingests undercooked pork contaminated with bacteria such as Yersinia enterocolitica could develop a severe diarrheal illness that would be more difficult to treat as the organism is already resistant to multiple antibiotics.

This report highlights key things consumers can do to protect themselves, such as ensuring meat is cooked appropriately (thus killing any bacterial contaminants), keeping raw meat separate from other foods and good hand washing.

This report is a disturbing real-time reminder that non-human antibiotic use is an important component of the current antibiotic resistance crisis; this is especially important when one considers that approximately 80% of all antibiotics used in the United States are used in food-production animals. Efforts to combat antibiotic resistance must account for the large percentage of antibiotic use in the food industry, and true solutions to this problem will require coordinated efforts across multiple disciplines.