Poultry workers carry drug-resistant germs

BALTIMORE, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A U.S. study has determined poultry workers are 32 times more likely to carry antibiotic-resistant E. coli bacteria than are non-poultry workers.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health said they found E. coli bacteria in the U.S. poultry industry are resistant to the commonly used antibiotic gentamicin.

While drug resistant bacteria such as E. coli are common in the industrial broiler chicken environment, the researchers said their study is the first U.S. research to show exposure occurring at a high level among industrial poultry workers.

"The use of antimicrobials in industrial food production has been going on for over 50 years in the United States," said lance Price, the study's lead author. "Some estimates indicate that well over half of the antimicrobial drugs produced in the United States are used in food animal production. In the U.S. alone, over nine billion food animals are produced annually."

The research appears in journal Environmental Health Perspectives.