Tuesday, June 10, 2008

MRSA varient in Food Chain

It was only a matter of time that the overuse of antibiotics in our food chain and in our environment in general would catch up to us. MRSA is a possibly leathal infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria — often called "staph." While typically a concern in hospital settings, new research is revealing that MRSA is being found in the food chain. Moreover, it was reported that there are more fatalities from MRSA then from AIDS. Unfortunatly the USDA has turned the blind eye and do not test for MRSA, even through recent studies out of the University of Iowa have shown that "70% of pork tested had MRSA!" It potentially can be found in chicken, beef and lamb as well.

As usual, Tom Phillpot or Grist has written a great article on this topic.

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