Kitchen credo states that after handling poultry and raw meat you should wash your hands thoroughly to avoid infection that could rise from listeria, salmonella or E.coli contamination. While you are at it, you might as well give your countertops, the cutting boards, and even the faucets a thorough rub, since there is a new enemy in sight – Staphylococcus aureus, also commonly known as staph!
Wondering where you heard that name before? You may recognize this pathogen from the stir it created several years ago when a particularly virulent strain of staph – methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) – caused illness in children leading to tens of thousands of death.
Recently, researchers were shocked to discover that close to 50% of the poultry, beef and pork samples they tested were found to be contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus. More disturbing is the fact that most of the strains of bacteria found in the meat exhibited resistance to more than one antibiotic.
Lance Price, a professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute is of the opinion that while it is not uncommon to hear of bacteria in meat and poultry, the presence of strains of staph that are resistant to multiple drugs is certainly an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence. He blames this phenomenon on excessive dependence on antibiotics in commercial agriculture, used primarily to spur the growth rate of the animals and make their feed a lot more efficient.
Since it is not recognized as one of the more common food-borne pathogens, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) doesn’t monitor the presence of staph in food source. Although bacteria die upon being heated, they still pose a possible health hazard when you handle it in the kitchen. If you or a certain member of your family is particularly susceptible to bacterial infections, something as innocent as handling kitchen tools that came in contact with the contaminated meat could cause, in mild cases, diarrhea or nausea and, in extreme cases, toxic shock.
About 12 million people every year visit the emergency room with complaints of potential staph infection although exactly what percentage of this figure is caused by contaminated food is not yet known. Given the seriousness of the problem, the FDA and USDA have already rolled out a pilot survey to see how common the occurrence of staph bacteria is in the supply of meat. This survey will go a long way in determining whether staph will find its place among salmonella and E.coli as potential food-borne hazards.
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