November 2, 2001 – According to recent research published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, salmonella bacteria, the leading cause of foodborne illness, is commonly found in meats purchased from supermarkets in the Washington, DC area, and its various strains are increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
Researchers detected and characterized strains of Salmonella from 200 samples of ground meats (beef, chicken, turkey, and pork) from three supermarkets in Washington. Their analyzes showed that 20% of the samples were contaminated with salmonella. But most worrying was that 84% of strains of bacteria were resistant to at least one antibiotic, 53% to at least three antiobitics, and 16% to ceftriaxone, the drug usually prescribed to treat children with salmonellosis.
Researchers believe that the overuse of antibiotics on farms raising animals for human consumption contributes to increasing the resistance of this bacterial group. As these resistant bacteria can be transmitted to humans through food, this is a public health concern of concern.
For decades, farmers have been giving antibiotics to farm animals. The Animal Health Institute, which represents the makers of animal drugs, says more than 20 million pounds of antibiotics are used annually to treat or prevent disease in animals. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, barely 2 million pounds is intended for sick animals, and the rest is aimed at protecting and fattening them. In comparison, humans consume 3 million pounds of antibiotics annually.
Salmonellosis is an intestinal infection that usually manifests itself 8 to 48 hours after infection. It is spread through food (especially chicken, eggs and milk), by touching infected animals (chick, duck, turtle and exotic reptile) and, in rare cases, by taking medicine by-products from animals that were contaminated. The main symptoms are fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, abdominal and muscle pain, stomach cramps and diarrhea which may contain blood and mucus. Most people with the disease no longer have symptoms after ten days.
To prevent the risk of contamination, it is advisable to cook meat and poultry well and keep them cold. Since the poisoning goes away after a few days, doctors usually do not prescribe antibiotics except for sick or dehydrated people whose immune systems are already weakened.
Between one and two million cases of foodborne salmonellosis are reported in the United States each year. In comparison, in Canada, there were 7,040 cases in 1998, including 1,181 in Quebec.
According to the researchers, the study provides enough evidence for the state to adopt tougher standards to prevent the overuse of antibiotics in animals intended for human consumption and reduce the number of pathogens present in them. farms and slaughterhouses.
Monique Lalancette – PasseportSanté.net
According to InteliHealth, October 18-24, 2001.
1. White DG, Zhao S, Sudler R, Ayers S, Friedman S, Chen S, McDermott PF, McDermott S, Wagner DD, Meng J. The isolation of antibiotic-resistant salmonella from retail ground meats. N Engl J Med 2001 Oct 18; 345 (16): 1147-54.
