Nearly half of the retail meat and poultry samples tested in a Spanish study contained multidrug resistant or potentially pathogenic E. coli.
According to an analysis of 100 meat products (chicken, turkey, beef and pork) conducted in 2020:
- 73% of the samples contained levels of E. coli under current food safety limits.
- 40% of the samples contained multidrug resistant E. coli. In some of these samples, E. coli that produces extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) was present, which results in resistance to most beta-lactam antibiotics, including penicillin.
- There was a higher presence of ESBL-producing E. coli in poultry compared to beef or pork, which the researchers attributed to differences in production and slaughter.
- 27% of the samples contained potentially pathogenic extraintestinal E. coli (ExPEC), which can cause urinary tract infections, sepsis and neonatal meningitis.
- 1% of the samples tested positive for E. coli harboring the mcr-1 gene, This gene confers resistance to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort when a bacterium is resistant to all other antibiotics.
“Our findings further highlight the role of poultry meat as a source of UPEC, ExPEC, ESBL-producing E. coli and K. pneumoniae for consumers,” the authors wrote.
Growing antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic use in poultry and other livestock is under scrutiny due to growing antibiotic resistance and consumer concerns. Resistance, when bacteria develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them, can devastate poultry flocks and affect the livelihood of farmers.
Antibiotic-resistant infections kill an estimated 700,000 people a year globally. That figure is expected to rise to 10 million by 2050 if no action is taken.
A 2020 report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) revealed that E. coli in poultry was highly likely to be resistant to ciproflaxin, a common human antibiotic against foodborne pathogens.
“Farm-to-fork interventions must be a priority to protect the consumer," Azucena Mora Gutiérrez, the study’s author, said in a statement.
For example, he advocates for the "implementation of surveillance lab methods to allow further study of high-risk bacteria (in farm animals and meat) and their evolution due to the latest European Union (EU) restriction programs on antibiotic use in veterinary medicine” as a potential intervention to reduce antibiotic resistance.
The researchers presented the findings at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases.
