Is There MRSA in Your Meat?

[jtuck004]

Article I read was by Melanie Warner, Delicious Living Magazine, here....


Yes, that's a variant of the MRSA talked about in hospitals, an infectious disease that can be largely avoided by not spreading bacteria. Nasty stuff. Avoid it if you can.

A study in 2008, in Louisiana, found MRSA in small numbers of packages of retail meats such as beef, pork, and chicken from retail grocery stores. MRSA has been found in small numbers of samples in Canada. Small amounts of antibiotics are given to animals heading for the grocery store, and this may allow them to develop what is sometimes called "superbugs". 70% of the antibiotics in the United States are used on healthy livestock, so not uncommon.

People who raise organic beef from local sources often keep their animals in such a way that eliminates the need for antibiotics. When antibiotics must be used the animal is not allowed to be sold as organic.

If you are going to eat meat please practice safe food-handling habits and cook meat thoroughly.

If, however, you don't eat meat, thank you.

[Berserker]

1. unlike the other animals

of the world I like my steak medium not raw. But then again I am and animal.

[jtuck004]

2. Yea, me too. But I am replacing it with raw vegetables when I can.

Enzymes. Yum. ;)

[MajorChode]

3. Big fear, little risk

The article tries to suggest that diseases caused by MRSA proliferate via the US meat supply, and that's just not the case.

[jtuck004]

5. Yup, only 5 out of every hundred packages had the bacteria

and a little more reading indicated that it might be the human processing that is the problem.

On the other hand, based on those results, you have a far better chance of feeding your kid a piece of meat with cooked MRSA on it than you do of winning the lottery on the scratch cards at the gas station. And that was in 2008. I would guess given our job market there are more problems today...

I think the article does a good job of pointing out that there is likely an infectious bacteria that should not be on your food in too many packages of food. If the problem is one of handling, what's to say the worker at the mart didn't handle the milk cartons or some of the produce after they wrapped up the meat?

After watching my wife undergo surgery to remove MRSA from a joint, then 6 weeks of Vancomycin antibiotic, followed by a series of allergic reactions requiring breathing assistance, I think it's worth at least being aware of.

[Javaman]

4. I get my meat from a local farm who has a closed system.

They grow their own feed and don't use any hormones or antibiotics.

They use rotational farming methods between their chickens, cattle and crops.

I have been to slaughters and know exactly how the animal is killed.

I know exactly how the meat I get is butchered and how it the animal is treated.

While I understand your concern about MRSA, it is ignorance regarding the path from farm to plate that is the real concern.

Most people in this nation eat factory farm meat. They might as well be eating the crap off of the floors restaurant kitchens .

Part of the factory farm meat industries mission is disinformation. Telling people that factory farm meat is perfectly safe. When clearly it is not.

Also trying to scare people into thinking that all meat could be tainted with MRSA, does no good either. That's just pushing fear instead of education.

When properly informed, the average citizen will make wise decisions, not ones based on fear.

Fear is what drives the republican platform, we are much better than that.

And educated public is an informed public.

[jtuck004]

9. Well, other than the opinion that we may be at the beginning of an epidemic

when talking about the rise in MRSA cases in the hospitals, I don't think putting such a survey into the public in such an article does anything more than educate. Fear comes from not knowing or being too overwhelmed with life to freakin' google MRSA, or Louisiana study meat 2008 mrsa. And with that comes a veritable waterfall of other info indicating that mrsa infection of meat, an infectious bacteria of the same name as the strain found in humans is not uncommon in retail meat products. Also that some have suggested it may be spread by poor handling, which can be fixed. Though it won't make a differenced where you get it if you are infected. And if a person chooses to replace meat with vegetables once a week, or, say, no meat on Monday, and that takes an animal out of the hands of those who practice cruelty for a buck (which is what leads to MRSA infections in meat and salmonella in people's nest eggs) it's ok by me.

This article buried in the back of a free magazine at the grocery store deserves to get a wider audience. And she just did.

How you feel about the information is under your control. You choose that as does everyone else. A 5 out of a hundred chance that it is infected, and you are going to cook it at least medium well anyway (many people) means just that. Anything someone else tries to throw at it is not as good as writing an article and putting your real name on it in public. That said, I still google for more info to make sure it is substantiated. And it is.

btw 1) Another way to put that last line might be "An educated public is an informed public".

btw 2) My daddy used to tell me, "son" (he called me "son")

"People using the word "ignorance" in a post should make sure their grammar, or spelling, is up to the task of persuasion".

[Cetacea]

6. Probably.

I don't eat the stuff though.

[Lance_Boyle]

7. Is there hepatitis in your sanctimoniously-prepared green onions?

Botulism in your canned goods? Listeria in your leafy greens?

Eye - mote - beam.

[jtuck004]

8. Probably is, given the runoff into the fields. Especially with cabbage,

spinach, leafy stuff ;)

And a really stupid bunch of people that let it continue...