Meat tainted with deadly bacteria is being sold to consumers

Meat contaminated by a potentially lethal infection is being sold to consumers -- creating a public health threat that has largely flown under the the radar due to powerful industry interests and lax accountability at the federal agency in charge of ensuring food safety, according to recent studies and a prominent investigative journalist.

"It makes salmonella look like a picnic," is how David Kirby, an investigative journalist who has written about MRSA, a life-threatening pathogen, described it in an interview with Consumer Ally. MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is an antibiotic-resistant staph infection that kills about 20,000 Americans -- more than the number of people who die from AIDS -- each year.

MRSA affects livestock and ultimately supermarket meat. Previously associated mostly with infections acquired in hospitals, nursing homes or by people with compromised immune systems, for the past 15 years MRSA is increasingly being traced to industrial animal feeding operations, so-called factory farms, where much of the nation's protein comes from.

A number of clinical and academic studies bear this out: a recent Canadian study showed nearly 14% of pork chops (about one in seven) and 6.3% of ground pork sold in supermarkets carried the contamination -- taken together, 9.6% of all pork samples. Additionally, 5.6% of the beef and 1.2% of the poultry carried the bug. The bacterium was also found in veal, lamb and other meats.

Another report, by Louisiana State University, found 5.5% of pork samples and 3.3% of beef samples taken from local supermarkets were contaminated. Yet another - this one out of the pork industry's lobby arm, the National Pork Board -- found MRSA in 3% of pork samples. That means a family buying raw pork twice a week brings MRSA home an average of three times a year.

See full article from WalletPop: srph.it...


www.walletpop.com...

I found this very disturbing, we should all start preparing are own meat...I never realized how many people died from MRSA until today

It may be a good time to stop eating meat, or raise your own as you should, treat the animal well, look after it and feed it.
The commercial meat preparation is disgusting and worse yet how the animal is brought up (abused) and the crap its fed and injected.
I think we will see a rise in such occurrences.

reply to post by remrem

I'm waiting for a string of Mad Cow disease, so I could wear my John Titor is right shirt(If I had one).

if you have been paying attention for the duration of your existence you would realize all meat is tainted with bacteria. whether it kills you fast through food poisoning or slowly through degenerative diseases, its all the same stuff really.
this is nothing new, YOUR FEEDING OFF A CORPSE.
i dont get how people on a conspiracy theory message board can be so oblivious to the ways of teh wrold.
you wont let them chip you, vaccinate you, or take their meds/drugs but you have no problem feeding off the dead bodies they produce in the millions taht are pumped full fo their drugs and antibiotics? whats it going to take to get you to stop eating rotten animal body parts?
mind boggling.

What the hell? Thats insane.
So pretty much if we eat 7 different pork chops its quite likely for us to contract MRSA?
HACCP should be eradicating these threats before they reach the shelves. How come this isnt the case?
Very disturbing.

reply to post by littlecloud


Yes. Which common sense would tell you it's really not that big of an issue for the majority of us. Then again, most people like to cook their meat thoroughly, so most of the bacteria is destroyed. Most people who come into contract with potentially deadly pathogens never even develop symptoms. It's usually a combination of factors, like genetic susceptibilities, and a poor diet, or much stress, or whatever else.

Unless you're touching this meat all the time and not practicing good hygiene skills like washing your hands directly after words, you're probably in the clear.

If you or your "authority" had correctly identified "MRSA," you might have earned some credibility
You failed to advise that COOKING meat effectively destroys MRSA and most other pathogens.

The only other "cure" is to stop eating altogether, leave ATS, and get under your bed until your mother calls you back out for dinner. .