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9 Tevet 5768

Poultry Workers and E. Coli

This news might make you sick, so brace yourself for it.

According to a December 2007 edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, poultry workers in the United States are 32 times more likely to carry E. coli bacteria resistant to the commonly used antibiotic, gentamicin, than others outside the poultry industry, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In the study, researchers conducted in-depth analyses of 49 study participants, 16 working within the poultry industry and 33 community residents… for resistance to the antimicrobials ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriazone, gentamicin and tetracycline. Findings showed that poultry workers had 32 times greater odds of being colonized with gentamicin resistant E. coli than other members of the community.

TO REPEAT: Findings showed that poultry workers had 32 times greater odds of being colonized with gentamicin resistant E. coli than other members of the community.

"One of the major implications of this study is to underscore the importance of the non-hospital environment in the origin of drug resistant infections," said Ellen K. Silbergeld, PhD, senior author of the study.

That leaves the average person wondering about the safety of the food supply. Once you read the next paragraph, you might consider learning how to prepare vegetarian casseroles or organically raised fowl. Both are filling, nutritious, and safe. Well, they’re safe unless you add lots of drugs to them and let drug-resistant workers handle the birds the way the American poultry industry does to chicken and other poultry products. Makes you wonder what's going on in poultry processing plants in other parts of the world. Here’s the warning bell from the article referenced above:

"The use of antimicrobials in industrial food production has been going on for over 50 years in the United States," said the study's lead author, Lance B. Price, Ph.D., who serves on the research faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, and is a scientific advisor to the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. "Some estimates indicate that well over half of the antimicrobial drugs produced in the United States are used in food animal production. In the U.S. alone, over 9 billion food animals are produced annually."

Ask yourself in all honesty, "Do I want to continue eating debatably safe foods handled by people who are at risk for becoming quite ill and at risk for making me ill by endangering my food supply?" Look at this peaceful duck and think: "If I eat animals raised on grains and clean water only, my health and well-being might be better off."

Finding the above concerns hard to swallow? Here’s my information source:

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Office of Communications and Public Affairs
December 17, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

POULTRY WORKERS AT INCREASED RISK OF CARRYING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT E. COLI

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To your good health,

Yocheved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.