MRSA can occur in the environment and in raw meat products, and is estimated to cause around 185,000 cases of food poisoning each year. The bacteria can also cause serious, life-threatening infections of the bloodstream, skin, lungs, and other organs. MRSA is resistant to a number of antibiotics.
The study, published in the online science journal PLoS ONE, represents the largest sampling of raw meat products for MRSA contamination to date in the US, the research shows.
The researchers collected 395 raw pork samples from 36 stores in Iowa, Minnesota, and New Jersey. Of these samples, 7% carried MRSA.
Lead study author, Tara Smith, interim director of the UI Centre for Emerging and Infectious Diseases and assistant professor of epidemiology, says: “This study shows that the meat we buy in our grocery stores has a higher prevalence of staph than we originally thought. With this knowledge, we can start to recommend safer ways to handle raw meat products to make it safer for the consumer.”
“We were surprised to see no significant difference in antibiotic-free and conventionally produced pork,” Smith says. “Though it’s possible that this finding has more to do with the handling of the raw meat at the plant than the way the animals were raised, it’s certainly worth exploring further.”
*Source: College of Public Health *
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