Much U.S. meat contaminated with bacteria

PHOENIX, April 15 (UPI) -- Nearly half of U.S. meat and poultry samples were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria linked to a range of human diseases, researchers say.

Researchers at Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix analyzed 136 samples -- from 80 brands -- of beef, chicken, pork and turkey from 26 retail grocery stores in five cities: Los Angeles; Chicago; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Flagstaff, Ariz., and Washington.

Senior author Lance B. Price, director of Translational Genomics' Center for Food Microbiology and Environmental Health, says 47 percent of samples were contaminated with S. aureus and 52 percent were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics.

Price says staph should be killed if properly cooked, but it may still pose a risk to consumers -- especially the very young and the very old whose immunity is weaker -- through improper food handling and cross-contamination in the kitchen.

"For the first time, we know how much of our meat and poultry is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant staph, and it is substantial," Price said in a statement. "The fact that drug-resistant S. aureus was so prevalent and likely came from the food animals themselves."

Livestock at factory farms are steadily fed low doses of antibiotics, but this practice is an ideal breeding ground for drug-resistant bacteria that move from animals to humans, the report says.

The U.S. government routinely tests retail meat and poultry for four types of drug-resistant bacteria, but S. aureus is not among them.