A study has revealed “extremely high” levels of antibiotic-resistant E. coli in supermarket chicken and pork in the UK.
The research found that 24% of samples contained ESBL E. coli, a strain of the bacteria resistant to the “critically important” modern cephalosporin antibiotics. The level of ESBL E. coli is four times higher than was found during a similar study last year, in which just 6% of chicken tested positive for the bacterium. Modern cephalosporins are widely used for treating life-threatening E. coli blood poisoning in humans.
In addition, 51% of the E. coli from pork and poultry samples were resistant to the antibiotic trimethoprim, which is used to treat over half of lower urinary-tract infections; while 19% of the E. coli were resistant to gentamicin, an important human antibiotic used to treat more serious upper urinary-tract infections.
The Soil Association said that supermarkets needed to act in order to protect public health.
The study is the first to examine UK-origin retail meat for resistance to a wide range of important antibiotics for the treatment E. coli infections and was carried out by scientists at Cambridge University on behalf of an antibiotics advocacy group.
Samples were taken from the UK’s seven largest supermarkets: Asda, Aldi, Coop, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.
Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett said: “These results show how vital it is to encourage farming systems that keep animals healthy without abusing medicines that are crucial to human health. Organic farmers have been doing this successfully for years. Supermarkets must act to protect public health and support farmers to change their farming systems.”
Cambridge University’s Dr Mark Holmes, who led the study, said: “I’m concerned that insufficient resources are being put into the surveillance of antibiotic resistance in farm animals and retail meat. We don’t know if these levels are rising or falling in the absence of an effective monitoring system. These results highlight the need for improvements in antibiotic stewardship in veterinary medicine. While some progress has been made we must not be complacent as it may take many years before we see significant reductions in the numbers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in farms.”
Figures compiled by the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics from official data has shown that the number of E. coli blood-poisoning infections has been increasing for the past 25 years and reached a record 45,666 in 2015. The increase is partly being driven, it said, by increasing resistance to key antibiotics in urinary-tract infections, resulting in more treatment failures and in some cases the development of serious blood-poisoning infections. No new antibiotics have been discovered for treating E. coli for 35 years.
Dr Ron Daniels, CEO of the UK Sepsis Trust, said: “This study highlights a worrying trend towards rising resistance in E. coli on UK retail meat. E. coli in people is the greatest cause of deaths from sepsis, and poor antimicrobial stewardship in intensive farming is undoubtedly contributing to this trend. It’s of paramount importance that we act decisively to reduce this immediate threat to human life.”
But the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (Ruma) said that it “fully recognised concerns about growing resistant to antibiotics”, but that the majority of resistance in humans remains largely attributable to clinical trials and not agricultural practice.
Ruma chairman Gwyn Jones said: “Good kitchen hygiene, washing hands after handling raw meat and thorough cooking of meat will almost completely prevent the transmission of antimicrobial resistance from meat to man.
“Despite this, the farming industry must also play its part to control spread of resistance. This is why Ruma announced in May it is setting up an industry task force to look at how meaningful targets can be developed to replace, reduce and refine antibiotic use in UK agriculture. That group is now being formed and a first meeting will be held shortly.”
Jones also said that UK farming has already set its focus on reducing the use of antibiotics deemed critically important for human medicine (CIAs).
“Sales into farming of fluoroquinolones and third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins, which are CIAs, are already very low in the UK, representing just 0.9% of the total,” he said.
“In 2012 the poultry meat industry introduced a voluntary ban on the use of third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins, and a commitment to reduce the use of fluoroquinolones which has since led to an overall reduction.”
He rejected prospective calls for tighter regulation.
“The benefits of any restrictions for public health need to be clear, and balanced against the impact of restricted antibiotic use on animal welfare, the economic viability of our farms and overall UK food security. Badly handled, there is a real risk we will end up importing produce which increases risk to human health if our own, highly regulated industry is rendered unviable through arbitrary curbs.”
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