Conventionally raised poultry was twice as likely to contain multidrug-resistant Salmonella as poultry labeled antibiotic-free, according to research presented at the 2019 IDWeek conference.
In this exclusive MedPage Today video, study authors Xin Yin, MPH, a DrPH candidate at Penn State College of Medicine, and Nkuchia M'ikanatha, MD, an epidemiologist with the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), discuss their first-of-its-kind study.
Following is a transcript of their remarks:
Yin: The reason we conducted this study is because the antimicrobial resistance to salmonella is a public health concern in the United States. Each year in the United States alone, 100,000 infections and 40 deaths can be attributed to antibiotic-resistant salmonella. The reason we focused on the poultry in this study is because poultry is a very important vehicle for the transmission of antibiotic-resistant salmonella. The poultry consumption in the United States is very high, so in 2019 the per capita consumption is around 50 kilograms. Antimicrobials have been widely used in the poultry industry to treat bird illness, so our assumption here for the study is the poultry did not receive antibiotics. We have fewer antimicrobial-resistant salmonella.
What we did in this study is we purchased 3,500 poultry meat samples, including 2,000 chicken samples and 1,500 turkey samples, from randomly selected grocery stores in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania from 2008 to 2017. The poultry meat samples can be categorized as either conventionally raised or antibiotic-free. For antibiotic-free, we included organic, antibiotic-free, no antibiotics added, no antibiotics ever, etc. We then performed antimicrobial susceptibility testing on the 320 salmonella isolates recovered from the poultry meat samples. We did all the statistical tests using SAS. The main findings of our studies are first the prevalence of salmonella are twice as high in conventional poultry meat compared to antibiotic-free poultry meat. Second, the conventional poultry meat are twice as likely to be contaminated with antibiotic-resistant salmonella. The third one is the conventional poultry meat were more likely to contain genes, specifically blaCMY-2 gene that confers resistance to cephalosporin, which can be used to treat human illness, including postoperative infections.
The key message here, I think to the consumers or the average person, is when you go to the grocery store to purchase poultry meats, you need to read carefully about the antibiotic-usage-related production claims and think about the risk of antibiotic resistance before you make the purchase decision.
M'ikanatha: Our study has important implications for providers and that is while practices in salmonella are present, it's still not extremely high. The fact that we found resistance to drugs that are recommended for treatment, including the drugs that are the only option for treating children, suggests a need for finding out whether for the person when treatment is indicated, whether the bacteria is susceptible to the drugs that the provider wishes to use for treatment, because if they use the drug that's not susceptible, then treatment can be compromised and the outcome can also be compromised. Those are the main implications for the providers.