FDA CVM Director Responds To Bacteria In Meat Report

In a New York Times (4/24, Subscription Publication, 1.68M) letter-to-the editor, the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine Director Dr. Bernadette Dunham responds to an April 17 article “about the Environmental Working Group’s interpretation of government data on antimicrobial resistant bacteria in meat,” noting that the some data in the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System “may have limited direct medical relevance, and it’s important to consider which drugs are used to treat infections and which bacteria actually cause food-borne illness.”

Moreover, Dr. Dunham calls the EWG’s conclusion “that resistance in any bacterium is problematic for human health” an “oversimplication” because some “bacteria are naturally resistant to certain drugs. Also, describing bacteria that are resistant to one, or even a few, drugs as ‘superbugs’ is inappropriate” because superbugs are “pathogens that can cause severe disease and are very difficult to treat,” she notes.

Report: Supermarket Meat Contains Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

The New York Times (4/17, Strom, Subscription Publication, 1.68M) reports the findings in report by the Environmental Work Group illuminated Federal data that claims over half of “samples of ground turkey, pork chops and ground beef collected from supermarkets for testing by the government contained a bacteria resistant to antibiotics.”

The 2011 data collected by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, which is jointly run by the FDA, the USDA and the CDC, reveals “a sizable increase in the amount of meat contaminated with antibiotic-resistant forms of bacteria, known as superbugs, like salmonella, E. coli and campylobacter.” 

Dawn Undurraga, the nutritionist for the group, said the study “really raises a question about the antibiotics we are using in raising animals for meat.” The Times also mentions the report was partially underwritten by a company that sells organic and antibiotic-free meat.