A report released Thursday indicates that just about all chicken sold in U.S. stores contains harmful bacteria, and nearly half are tainted with a so-called superbug that's resistant to antibiotics.
The Consumer Reports study, its most comprehensive to date on poultry, tested raw chicken breasts purchased at retail outlets nationwide for six bacteria, then checked for antibiotic resistance. The results showed nearly half of the samples were contaminated with at least one bacterium resistant to three or more classes of antibiotics, what's known as a superbug. Slightly more than 10 percent were tainted with two superbugs.
That finding is cause for alarm, said Urvashi Rangan, a toxicologist and executive director of Consumer Reports National Research Center.
"We're in a public health crisis," Rangan said. "Pharmaceutical companies are not making new antibiotics."
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
The Consumer Reports study, its most comprehensive to date on poultry, tested raw chicken breasts purchased at retail outlets nationwide for six bacteria, then checked for antibiotic resistance. The results showed nearly half of the samples were contaminated with at least one bacterium resistant to three or more classes of antibiotics, what's known as a superbug. Slightly more than 10 percent were tainted with two superbugs.
That finding is cause for alarm, said Urvashi Rangan, a toxicologist and executive director of Consumer Reports National Research Center.
"We're in a public health crisis," Rangan said. "Pharmaceutical companies are not making new antibiotics."
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
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