Consumer Reports releases turkey study
April 30, 2013 | 04:18 PM
Consumer Reports today released a study of ground turkey that it said found potential disease-causing organisms in most of the 257 samples it tested, many of which proved resistant to more than three antibiotic drug classes. But the National Turkey Federation said the sample was too small.
“Our findings strongly suggest that there is a direct relationship between the routine use of antibiotics in animal production and increased antibiotic resistance in bacteria on ground turkey. It’s very concerning that antibiotics fed to turkeys are creating resistance to antibiotics used in human medicine,” said Urvashi Rangan, director of the Food Safety and Sustainability Group at Consumer Reports.
“Humans don’t consume antibiotics every day to prevent disease and neither should healthy animals,” Rangan said. “Prudent use of antibiotics should be required to stem the public health crisis generated from the reduced effectiveness of antibiotics.”
National Turkey Federation President Joel Brandenberger said in a news release, Consumer Reports “had the opportunity to foster a serious, thoughtful discussion about food safety, but instead it chose to sensationalize findings and mislead people.”
NTF said that, while Consumer Reports had reported high levels of certain pathogens on the samples tested, “the two most prevalent, enterococcus and generic E.coli, are not considered sources of foodborne illness. By contrast, for the two pathogens of public health concern — campylobacter and salmonella — the magazine found almost no prevalence (5 percent for salmonella and zero campylobacter).”
“This is borne out by more extensive government testing, which finds almost 90 percent of all ground turkey and 97 percent of whole turkeys are salmonella-free,” NTF said. “While the turkey industry strives to control all bacteria on its products, it focuses primarily on those bacteria that present the greatest threat to human health.”
“Our findings strongly suggest that there is a direct relationship between the routine use of antibiotics in animal production and increased antibiotic resistance in bacteria on ground turkey. It’s very concerning that antibiotics fed to turkeys are creating resistance to antibiotics used in human medicine,” said Urvashi Rangan, director of the Food Safety and Sustainability Group at Consumer Reports.
“Humans don’t consume antibiotics every day to prevent disease and neither should healthy animals,” Rangan said. “Prudent use of antibiotics should be required to stem the public health crisis generated from the reduced effectiveness of antibiotics.”
National Turkey Federation President Joel Brandenberger said in a news release, Consumer Reports “had the opportunity to foster a serious, thoughtful discussion about food safety, but instead it chose to sensationalize findings and mislead people.”
NTF said that, while Consumer Reports had reported high levels of certain pathogens on the samples tested, “the two most prevalent, enterococcus and generic E.coli, are not considered sources of foodborne illness. By contrast, for the two pathogens of public health concern — campylobacter and salmonella — the magazine found almost no prevalence (5 percent for salmonella and zero campylobacter).”
“This is borne out by more extensive government testing, which finds almost 90 percent of all ground turkey and 97 percent of whole turkeys are salmonella-free,” NTF said. “While the turkey industry strives to control all bacteria on its products, it focuses primarily on those bacteria that present the greatest threat to human health.”
