How Does Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Wind Up in Organic Meat?

By Heather Callaghan
There is a dizzying and vicious cycle of the overuse of antibiotics in meat production. Animals make up over three quarters of antibiotic use which has helped create a public health crisis.

We are now on third-generation drugs that are not combating the bacteria they were designed to eradicate.

Resistant bacteria is even found in antibiotic-free meats. Now, multiple drug-resistant bacteria is contaminating organic chicken - but how? And how do we avoid exposure? Especially for those who cannot or choose not to eliminate meat from their diet.

Dr. Greger describes above some reasons why organic chicken is now tainted with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. One reason is the sheer amount of waste run-off from farms. But the information somewhat ends there.

The punchline at the end of the video shows not only how far consumers and store employees have become removed from food sources, but also just how hard it is to avoid serious pathogens in store-bought meats.

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Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria: Rise of Bacteria Modern Antiobiotcs Can't Stop

Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria: Frontline (PBS)

Has the age of antibiotics come to an end? From a young girl thrust onto life support in Arizona to an uncontrollable outbreak at one of the nation's most prestigious hospitals, FRONTLINE investigates the alarming rise of a deadly type of bacteria that our modern antibiotics can't stop. 

'Doomsday Bacteria' Has Arrived: Predicted Emergence of Bug That's 'Immune' To ALL Antibiotics Has Happened - Discovered in New Zealand

The loss of effective antibiotics would mean the following for mankind: Loss of "the ability to treat cancer, and to transplant organs, because doing those successfully relies on suppressing the immune system and willingly making ourselves vulnerable to infection. Any treatment that relies on a permanent port into the bloodstream — for instance, kidney dialysis. Any major open-cavity surgery, on the heart, the lungs, the abdomen. Any surgery on a part of the body that already harbors a population of bacteria: the guts, the bladder, the genitals. Implantable devices: new hips, new knees, new heart valves. Cosmetic plastic surgery. Liposuction. Tattoos."

Hospital-Associated Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Bacteria. The bacteria discovered in New Zealand is far more dangerous.
(Photo: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

This week, health authorities in New Zealand announced that the tightly quarantined island nation — the only place I’ve ever been where you get x-rayed on the way into the country as well as leaving it — has experienced its first case, and first death, from  a strain of totally drug-resistant bacteria. From the New Zealand Herald:

In January, while he was teaching English in Vietnam, (Brian) Pool suffered a brain hemorrhage and was operated on in a Vietnamese hospital.

He was flown to Wellington Hospital where tests found he was carrying the strain of bacterium known as KPC-Oxa 48 – an organism that rejects every kind of antibiotic.

Wellington Hospital clinical microbiologist Mark Jones (said): “Nothing would touch it. Absolutely nothing. It’s the first one that we’ve ever seen that is resistant to every single antibiotic known.”

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