COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Danish researchers say that most of the people in the country infected with drug-resistant bacteria picked up the infection from imported meat.
The Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research found that bacteria in foreign meat is seven times more likely to be resistant to antibiotics, the newspaper Politiken reported Tuesday. Danes are increasingly eating imported meat, with about half of the chicken sold in the country now coming from elsewhere.
"We see a clear rise in infections that can be attributed to foreign meat products," researcher Yvonne Agerso told the newspaper. "The worst-case scenario is that we are unable to treat an infection. That could mean death for some people or a complicated sickness."
Denmark's regulations on the use of antibiotics in livestock are much stricter than most other countries, mainly because of the fear of developing resistant strains of bacteria.
