Some of the pork at a British supermarket was contaminated with a potentially fatal superbug, an investigation has found.
Tests found that more than 10% of pork products sampled, including jocks, chops and minced meat, were contaminated with bacteria that have shown resistance to a “last resort” antibiotic used to treat serious illnesses in humans. Contaminated products include some pork sold under the “Red Tractor assured” label and RSPCA-guaranteed and organic products.
The superbug is a variant of enterococcal bacteria that can cause urinary tract infections and wounds, among other ailments. In the most serious cases, the bacteria can infect the bloodstream, heart and brain.
It has become resistant to treatment with certain types of antibiotics, which means that some of the drugs that a doctor might normally prescribe will not be effective in treating an illness.
Drug-resistant strains of bacteria are a serious health concern, with levels known to be rising across Europe. There are many reasons why bacteria develop ways to circumvent antibiotics, but one key problem is that antibiotics have been widely used in animal agriculture to treat and prevent disease, especially in factory farms.
These farms can act as incubators for potentially fatal drug-resistant diseases in humans, and antibiotic resistance is now considered one of the world’s biggest public health threats. A UK government review of antimicrobial resistance in 2016 estimated that superbugs kill at least 700,000 people worldwide every year, which could rise to 10 million extra deaths by 2050 if no action is taken.
New tests, shared exclusively with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian, suggest that enterococci superbug is more common in UK meat than previously thought. A government study published in 2018 found it in one in 100 pork and poultry products tested. But the new tests found it in 13 of 103 samples and also found it in organic meat, despite the fact that organic farmers use significantly fewer antibiotics on their animals.
Experts said the “alarming” revelations reinforced the need for more surveillance.
Tim Lang, Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City, University of London, said: “These findings suggest that antibiotic use is by no means under control in parts of the meat industry. Buying any food is a relationship of trust; no user has x-ray specs to see what these findings show. There is no tag.
In response, a Red Tractor spokesperson said that certified pig farms are required to use antibiotics responsibly, under the guidance of a veterinarian.
The RSPCA said: “As an animal welfare organisation, we hope and would expect to see that higher welfare systems will require lower use of antimicrobials, which in turn will reduce the risk of developing antimicrobial resistance. resistance. This will improve the lives of farm animals as well as protect human health.
Gareth Morgan, head of agricultural policy at the Soil Association, said: “The lower levels of antibiotic resistance in organic produce can be explained by the very strong restrictions on the use of antibiotics in organic farming.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate, the government department responsible for the use of antibiotics on farms, said in a statement: “We are committed to reducing the unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals and it remains our intention to strengthen our national legislation in this area.”
The FSA states that thorough cooking of meat should kill most bacteria or reduce it, and hygienic handling will help reduce the risk. It should always be stored separately in the refrigerator, and hands, knives and boards should be washed thoroughly after use.
In what is believed to be the first study of its kind in the UK, campaign group World Animal Protection commissioned Fera Science to investigate the spread of antibiotic-resistant enterococci in pork produced under three different food security schemes, as well as products without warranty.
The researchers bought 103 pork samples – 22 with the Red Tractor label, 27 each from the RSPCA and organic schemes and 27 without the safety label – from supermarkets and online shops in Yorkshire. All were from British farms, except for the products without a security label.
The meat was then analyzed for enterococcal bacteria and the 25 positive samples were tested for antibiotic resistance. Of the infected samples, all but two contained enterococci resistant to at least one antibiotic.
Of the contaminated samples, 13 were resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. Five of these were Red Tractor products, four non-guaranteed and two were organic and RSPCA. Vancomycin – part of the glycopeptide class of antibiotics – is often called an antibiotic of “last resort” because of its importance in treating the most serious and life-threatening infections.
The glycopeptide avoparcin was widely used on farms to fatten livestock faster until the EU banned it in 1997 after the practice was widely blamed for spreading superbugs from farm animals to humans.
Despite the ban, studies have shown that the use of other antibiotics in livestock has contributed to the persistence of glycopeptide resistance in bacteria carried by farm animals.
Some samples of enterococci were found to be resistant to other classes of drugs classified as “critically important” to human health. Some of these drugs, including fluoroquinolones and macrolides, continue to be used on UK pig farms despite calls for their use to be restricted.
A spokesman for Red Tractor said: “Our standards allow the use of critical antibiotics of the highest priority only as a last resort when absolutely necessary to protect pig health.”
Although the UK pig industry claims to have reduced the use of antibiotics on farms in recent years, concerns have been raised that as one type of drug has been phased out, farmers and vets have turned to others rather than fully tackling inadequate standards of humane treatment.
Cóilín Nunan, science adviser at the Save Our Antibiotics Alliance, said: “Much higher welfare standards could reduce animal stress and disease and eliminate the need for most antibiotics in pig farming.”
The Soil Association said glycopeptides have never been used in organic farming. One possible explanation, he says, for the discovery of vancomycin-resistant bacteria in organic meat is that they have spread to organic farms through the environment, including the water supply.
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More than half of all antibiotics worldwide are used in animals, and reducing the use of drugs in agriculture is considered critical to helping combat the problem.
Earlier this year, the EU introduced stricter regulations that banned the feeding of antibiotics to groups of healthy animals. The UK has so far not committed to such rules, prompting warnings that it risks falling behind in the fight against the spread of antibiotic-resistant diseases.
Mark Holmes, professor of microbial genomics and veterinary science at the University of Cambridge, called on the UK government to adopt EU standards: “Antibiotic management in UK agriculture has improved significantly over the last few years, but there is always room for improvement . “
Lindsey Duncan, agricultural campaigns manager at the conservation charity World Animal Protection, said: “The UK Government needs to end the routine use of antibiotics on farm animals, as the EU has recently done, and recognize that reducing the consumption of animal products is needed to address the myriad problems caused by factory farming.”
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