Concerns growing over superbugs in our food

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC

About two years ago, dozens of workers at a large chicken hatchery in Arkansas began experiencing mysterious skin rashes, with painful lumps scattered over their hands, arms, and legs.

"They hurt real bad," says Joyce Long, 48, a 32-year veteran of the hatchery, where until recently, workers handled eggs and chicks with bare hands. "When we went and got cultured, doctors told us we had a superbug."

Its name, she learned, was MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This form of staph bacteria developed a mutation that resists antibiotics (including methicillin), making it hard to treat, even lethal. According to the CDC, certain types of MRSA infections kill 18,000 Americans a year — more than die from AIDS.

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Then in 2008, a new source and strain of MRSA emerged in the United States. Researcher Tara Smith, PhD, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa, studied two large Midwestern hog farms and found the strain, ST398, in 45 percent of farmers and 49 percent of pigs. The startling discovery — and the close connection between animal health and our own that it implied — caused widespread publicity and much official hand-wringing. To date, though, the government has yet to put a comprehensive MRSA inspection process in place, let alone fix our problematic meat-production system.

You may not have the same close contact with meat that a processing plant worker has, but scientists warn there is reason for concern: Most of us handle meat daily, as we bread chicken cutlets, trim fat from pork, or form chopped beef into burgers. Cooking does kill the microbe, but MRSA thrives on skin, so you can contract it by touching infected raw meat when you have a cut on your hand, explains Stuart Levy, MD, a Tufts University professor of microbiology and medicine. MRSA also flourishes in nasal passages, so touching your nose after touching meat gives the bug another way into your body, adds Smith.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31766160/ns/health-food_safety/

[SpiralHawk]

1. Millennial Agrarians Rise to Meet ‘Grim Vision’

"An authoritative new study sets out a grim vision of what lies ahead: climate change will cause shortages and violence, provoking much of civilization to collapse...

"...Reading the stark forecasts from this report put me in mind – thankfully – of someone I knew and admired, the late Leon Secatero of the Canoncito Band of Navajo, To’Hajiilee, New Mexico. Whenever Leon would hear pronouncements of inevitable doom, he would acknowledge the potential, then respond calmly...

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(snip) http://thecalloftheland.wordpress.com/

[Mrs. Overall]

2. One of our local Seattle news stations did an investigative report on MRSA in ground

pork. They tested it after they bought it in packages from various stores.

Funny though, I got beat up when I posted those results. I was told I was fear mongering.

The MRSA ground pork report suggested that consumers wash their hands after handling the pork and be aware of handling it with open wounds.

Obviously one can protect oneself by thoroughly washing hands, but that still doesn't address why the MRSA is in the pork in the first place.

[RebelOne]

3. When I read reports like this, I am so glad I'm a vegetarian. n/t

[TeeYiYi]

5. Question...

What's the best way to get protein into your diet, as a vegetarian? I don't want to eat meat, but I don't know what to replace it with. I've done research on the subject but can't seem to find a definitive answer. I currently eat chicken, fish and eggs for protein. Any suggestions?

Thanks. :hi:

TYY

[HeresyLives]

7. I've asked this before too.

But I've never gotten an answer. Some people even snarked at me for asking!

[DoBotherMe]

9. Eat Whole Foods

the food doesn't have to be raw but whole. I still eat a cup of organic fat free yogurt daily (because I like it with my blueberries), but other than that no animal products. I eat a variety of grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit and olive oil, as pasta, bread, cereal, stew, salad, snacks. Once you start the vegetarian diet you begin to eat differently (as in ALL DAY!) Dana ; )

[iris27]

10. Beans, nuts, soy, lots of things.

The whole "food-combining" thing of the 1970's has largely been shown to be unnecessary. As long as you eat a variety of foods throughout your day (beans/grains/legumes/nuts/fruit/veggies), you'll be fine protein-wise. Even a PBJ has protein.

I'm not vegetarian myself but have researched it a lot in the past...laziness and selective memory keep me from really committing to the switch.

[LaurenG]

4. This makes me even sadder for the chickens

We treat everything as a commodity instead of with respect and it's coming home to roost.

The horrible things we do to animals is coming up the food chain...

[benld74]

6. 'Superfarms' produced superbugs

[Kali]

8. more likely they are just spreading them

probably arose in misuse of antibiotics by humans

[iris27]

11. There's plenty of misuse of antibiotics in factory farms as well.

At least with people, we don't prescribe a constant course of prophylactic antibiotics. This is routinely done for factory-farmed livestock because they are crammed into conditions that make infection almost inevitable.

[Kali]

12. yes I know but the evolution of these organisms most likely came from

improper HUMAN use. Feeding of below-theraputic levels of antibiotics to livestock is asinine to me, BUT the MRSA most likely did not come from that practice.

People demanding antibiotics for problems that are not bacterial and people not finishing a full course of antibiotics when they do have a bacterial infection are the most likely cause of these resistant forms.

[NickB79]

13. Actually, even small family farmers add antibiotics now

My dad adds a 2-lb bag of tetracycline to the mix when he grinds up corn, soybeans, and alfalfa for the production of pig and cattle feed, every week for the entire year. His operation is only 120 acres, 60 sow pigs, and 30 beef cattle at a time. That is a pretty small operation for a farmer these days.

For example:

http://www.americanlivestock.com/pc-1272-166-tetra-bac-324.aspx