ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE AT THE MEAT COUNTER

• Lance B. Price

Director, Antibiotic Resistance Action Center (ARAC), Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University

As a public health researcher, I can tell you that there are lots of reasons you should decrease the amount of meat you eat. But as a microbiologist, the part of meat consumption that concerns me the most is our exposure to disease-causing bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Also known as superbugs, this type of scary bacteria is rampant in today’s food supply.

Each year in the United States, about 2 million people are infected with superbugs and at least 23,000 die. Salmonella and Campylobacter—two bacteria that are frequently transmitted via contaminated meat and poultry—cause 410,000 of these antibiotic-resistant infections.¹ And now we’re learning that meat can carry other drug-resistant pathogens as well. For example, my colleagues and I recently discovered that Klebsiella pneumoniae frequently contaminates the pork, chicken, and turkey products sold in grocery stores. This nasty bug can cause antibiotic-resistant urinary tract infections, liver abscesses, and bloodstream infections.

I have dedicated my career to stopping the spread of superbugs, and central to this goal is ending the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in food-animal production. Science tells us that bacteria move about freely in the environment and some superbugs flow seamlessly between people and animals. Studies dating back to the 1960s have shown repeatedly how antibiotic use in food-animal production helps breed superbugs that eventually end up in our food, air and water.

Groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have said that if we don’t significantly reduce antibiotic use in all settings—human, animal, and agriculture—we will soon be living in a postantibiotic world. Transplants and cancer treatments will no longer be possible, surgery and childbirth could have deadly consequences for tens of millions of people, and even a superficial cut could kill. Antibiotics are the cornerstones of modern medicine, but if we don’t find ways to protect the drugs from needless overuse, their days of protecting us from deadly bacteria will come to an end.

One of the things I find most alarming is the amount of antibiotics sold for use in chickens, turkeys, cattle, and pigs here in the United States. The most recent data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shows that 32.6 million pounds of antibiotics were sold for use in food animals in 2013. Compare that against the most recent data for humans—7.7 million pounds of antibiotics sold to treat people in 2011.² When fed to animals, most of these drugs are used to promote rapid growth or to keep animals from getting sick due to their often unsanitary and overcrowded living conditions. Animals destined for the dinner table consume about four times the amount of antibiotics prescribed by the medical system. Yet, most of the efforts to curb antibiotic use have focused on the human side.

Antibiotic resistance is a serious global threat to public health. Everyone has a role to play in combating it, including food-animal producers, the pharmaceutical industry, and policymakers. If you do buy meat, be careful when handling raw meat in the store and when you get it home. In addition, there are numerous food safety practices that you can adhere to that should lessen your exposure to bacteria on raw meat. These include washing your hands and kitchen surfaces often, refraining from washing raw meat (as that tends to spread bacteria), using separate cutting boards for meat and produce, cooking meat at its proper temperature and storing it properly. The CDC Web site also has excellent information on the subject for meat consumers.

Of course, meat eaters are not the only people who should be concerned about antibiotic resistance; antibiotic resistance is everyone’s problem. Bacteria can be transported from place to place via human contact, water, wind, or air. When this happens, resistance spreads through communities, hospitals, and farms. Drug-resistant bacteria in fertilizer or water used on food crops can even come home in your grocery bag. Moreover, as I noted earlier, antibiotic resistance is causing antibiotics to lose their effectiveness. Ultimately, everyone has a role to play in combating antibiotic resistance, including consumers who can vote with their wallets to support companies that use antibiotics responsibly.