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"MRSA in U.S. Retail Meat"
If you're not a factory farm pig, or factory farm worker, nor take showers in pork production facilities,
is there reason for concern about the level of MRSA superbug infection in US pig herds?
Retail meat samples were taken from 22 grocery stores, including pork, chicken, beef, turkey, bison, veal, hen, and lamb.
1% were found positive for MRSA. That was reported last year. This year: Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureaus
in Retail Meat, Detroit Michigan, USA, in the CDC journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases.
289 samples from 30 grocery stores. And chicken was found to be the worst: 3.9% of chicken samples
were contaminated with MRSA. A much more in-depth study, carried out in Canada: More than 900
samples of retail meat were tested. MRSA was isolated from about 10% of pork, 5% of beef, and 1% of chicken samples.
What are the practical implications? "Touching ones nose after handling contaminated meat could (possibly)
"result in nasal colonization and contact of contaminated meat with skin lesions could potentially result in
(MRSA) infection." As NYU professor Marc Siegel summed it up, "MRSA is a big problem and it appears to be
invading our meat."