U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter (NY- 28th C.D.) drew attention to a serious issue in sustainable farming with an op-ed piece in the Huffington Post, “What’s in Your Christmas Ham?” Although offered as a holiday feature, Slaughter’s post is relevant year-long. It points to a serious deficiency is sustainable farming practices in the United States, the widespread use of antibiotics in animal feed.
Slaughter cites the alarming statistic that nearly half of pigs on U.S. farms carry Methicillinan-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, known colloquially as MRSA. This isn’t a new discovery. Scientists have been warning about the problem for at several years, as described by Science Blogs. As far back as 2003, researchers found MSRA in Dutch pig farmers and that led to further researching documenting that the same superbug strain was appearing in the pigs and those coming in contact with them.
Due to widespread antibiotic use on pig farms, an MRSA superstrain ST398 developed. This superstrain is uniquely resistant to tetracycline among strains than have been shown to infect humans. Wired explained that tetracycline resistance is telltale- other human MRSA strains haven’t developed resistance to tetracycline because that drug isn’t commonly used to treat human infections. Its use in agriculture is widespread.
And there’s new evidence, cited by Wired, that the problem isn’t limited to supermarket pork but also to turkey. Seventeen percent of pork and seventeen percent of turkey among 694 samples tested by researchers from the University of Maryland and the USDA contained MRSA.
While fully cooking meat will kill bacteria, there’s a risk of skin exposure from handling infected meat before it’s cooked, according to Science Blogs.
The Government Accountability Organization has repeatedly criticized USDA for maintaining a lackadaisical stance on the issue of antibiotics in livestock feed; GAO’s most recent report, issued in September, says the limited data USDA and HHS have collected “lacks crucial details necessary to examine trends and understand the relationship between use and resistance.”
Slaughter introduced legislation in December to address the problem. Called The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, the bill would restrict the use of animal antibiotics in livestock production, allowing them to be used only for treatment of sick animals.
“The rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria is a looming threat to public health on a global scale, and it is only getting worse. It is time for Congress to stand with the World Health Organization and the National Academy of Sciences, and do something to address the spread of drug-resistant bacteria,” Slaughter said.