Shame on Consumer Reports

               Shame on Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports had an article on bacterial contamination in ground turkey products. Some of the things they stated were misleading.

In the report they tested for bacteria that was resistant to antibiotics. Specifically, they tested four antibiotics: ciprofloxacin, penicillin, cephalosporin, and tetracycline. Ciprofloxacin resistance was a bad choice to study in that ciprofloxacin has not been used in turkeys for the last 8 years. They tested for drug resistance to penicillin and cephalosporin which are also not used very much in turkeys. After being over-used for seventy years, you could find bacteria resistant to penicillin in bacteria whether they are in turkey or elsewhere.

Even though they may have made bad decisions on what to test for, they did point out one positive thing turkey farmers have accomplished. There was no Campylobacter bacteria on the turkeys that were tested.

Campylobacter causes more illness than any other bacteria that is on our food. It is a major accomplishment of the turkey producers to rid Campylobacter from the turkeys. They have also reduced the amount of Salmonella on the turkeys.

The odds are that they could get the same results testing any other type of ground meat. Consumers should take precautions when handling meat. Turkey and others meats should be cooked to the proper temperature to kill all bacteria. For turkey, that is 165 degrees. Turkey and other meats should not be washed. Washing will cause water to splatter and spread bacteria around your kitchen. You also need to wash your hands after handling any meat.

Even though I feel that Consumer Reports did a bad job in deciding which drugs to test for resistant bacteria, I think the turkey producers are making one big mistake. They are using antibiotics in the turkey feed instead of just giving antibiotics to sick birds. This causes bacterial resistance.

Eighty percent of the antibiotics used each year in America are used in animal feed. Farmers are quick to point out that sixty-seven percent are types of antibiotics that are not used in humans. Using this sixty-seven percent in their animal feed  just means that there will be no antibiotics for people as well animals. On March 8 of last year, the World Health Organization said that antibiotics would be useless in the future. We already have some bacteria that is totally drug-resistant.

It is time we started using other treatments for bacterial infections. The good news is that Australia has started to use Bacteriophage to treat bacterial diseases. That is the fourth country where Bacteriophage is legal.