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Friday 13 May 2011

MRSA found lurking in supermarket meat

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Interesting stuff - The Independent publishes a piece on American research linking MRSA to meat, but chooses the one that excludes pork and suggests contamination from meat handling rather than from the animals.

There is nothing wrong with that, but alas it is only a small part of a very worrying situation.

Full Independent report here


MRSA found lurking in supermarket meat

Friday, 13 May 2011
A new study announced May 12 discovered supermarket meats in the US contaminated with dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA...
...Scientists think the MRSA might be transferred to the meat by food handlers who carry the superbug, or by contaminated machinery in meat processing plants.
In the study, scientists found that 22.5 percent of 289 meat samples from Detroit grocery stores tested positive for MRSA. The breakdown: 20.5 percent of beef, 25 percent of chicken, and 24.6 percent of turkey samples were contaminated.
This news follows reports that MRSA has been discovered in pork products in Canada and Europe, as well as a recent US-based Translational Genomics Research Institute study that found 47 percent of supermarket meat in several US states carried Staph bacteria...