Chicken Bladder Infections Linked to Drug-Resistant Bacteria
A new study highlights concerns that are growing over drug-resistant strands of bacteria in chickens being passed to humans and causing bladder infections.
The investigative report was conducted by Maryn McKenna, a reporter for Food & Environment in collaboration with ABC and was published recently in The Atlantic.
"What this new research shows is, we may in fact know where it's [the antibiotic-resistant bladder infections are] coming from. It may be coming from antibiotics used in agriculture," McKenna stated.
Included in the report researchers found "close molecular matches" in resistant strains of DNA of E. coli in poultry used in agriculture.
The strains of E. coli are ones that are able to leave the organism and are found to lead to urinary tract infections. However, the researchers found no definite link, only a correlation between the rise of urinary tract infections and the resistance to drugs prescribed.
The National Chicken Council said that there is no proof that the drug-resistant bacteria that cause bladder infections actually came from the chickens.
"The studies in question make the assumption that humans carrying these E. coli acquired them from poultry. The strains did not originate in poultry and likely entered these farms from sources originating in human communities," the council said in a statement. "Perhaps most importantly, the potential transmission of antibiotic resistant E. coli to humans says nothing about why these E. coli are antibiotic resistant in the first place. The resistances observed in these E. coli are common globally and are unlikely to be attributed to chickens given the few antibiotics available for use in poultry in the U.S."
But researchers warn that bacteria arising from food that is transferred can be attributed to not handling food properly.
"We suspect that the transmission is occurring the same way other foodborne agents are transferred," study researcher Amee Manges of McGill University told MedPage.com.
That means transmission of the bacteria may occur when food is not cooked or handled properly or that there are other sources of contamination.