FLAGSTAFF, Arizona, April 17, 2011 (ENS) - Drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, are present in meat and poultry from U.S. grocery stores at high rates, finds the first national assessment of antibiotic resistant S. aureus in the U.S. food supply.
Nearly half of the meat and poultry samples, 47 percent, were contaminated with S. aureus, and more than half of those bacteria, 52 percent, were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics, according to the study published Friday in the journal "Clinical Infectious Diseases," a publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
The study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute used DNA testing to demonstrate that the food animals themselves were the major source of contamination.
Researchers collected and analyzed 136 samples covering 80 brands of beef, chicken, pork and turkey from 26 retail grocery stores in five U.S. cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Flagstaff and Washington, DC.
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