Study finds drug-resistant bacteria in Canadian supermarket chicken
About 67 percent of chicken has harmful bacteria, according to a study conducted by “Marketplace,” a Canadian consumer advocacy newsmagazine that is broadcast on CBC Television.
“Marketplace” researchers wanted to test grocery store chicken for harmful, drug-resistant bacteria and bought 100 samples of poultry from supermarket chains in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The samples included some of the “most familiar names in the poultry business,” says CBC News.
Lab analysis of the chicken found that two-thirds, or 67 percent, had bacteria. But the surprise wasn’t just the E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter bacteria found in the chicken. Rather it was that all of the bacteria was resistant to at least one antibiotic.
Even more frightening, the researchers found some of the bacteria had resistance to “six, seven, or even eight different types of antibiotics.”
In interviews with “Marketplace,” doctors and scientists said that the problem could be the result of chicken farmers giving too many antibiotics to their chickens, to make them stay healthy and speed up the growth process.
A representative of the Chicken Farmers of Canada, however, told “Marketplace” that there’s “judicious use” of the antibiotics by chicken farmers. It’s not easy to judge, however, since the Canadian government doesn’t track how many antibiotics farmers give to their chickens.
OH NOOOOOOO!!!! I am so scared that 67% of chicken has bacteria! Now I can’t just worry about terrorists, killer bees, super-volcanos, serial killers or meteors anymore. Now my chicken is so full of bugs I can’t eat it! I don’t think I will get out of bed in the morning because of all the bad things out there waiting to get me. Hmmmm wait a minute I hear bedbugs are on the rise!!!!! Oh Noooooo bedbugs.
Dead flesh has bacteria on it? What a shock! Didn’t we know this for the last couple thousand years? Be clean, keep you’re kitchen clean, cook your meat well.
It’s not the fact they have bugs, its that they are resistant to antibiotics…therefore, likely resistant to your body’s ability to fight them off. This is the point. Not the fact they simply have them.
Your body does not fight bacteria by giving it antibiotics… how stupid is that…
Your missing the point. It’s not the fact they have bugs, its that they are resistant to antibiotics, therefore, the body’s ability to fight them off is likely compromised.
False. Antibiotic resistance is not related to your body’s ability to fight off harnful bacteria. All it means is certain drugs wont be effective.
What I think he is trying to say is that due to these microorganisms being resistant to a level of antibiotics, it indicates that the bacteria itself has a higher virulence. Therefore the chance of one fighting off that particular bacterial infection is lower. Especially when compared to normal non-resistant forms of these particular bacterias. In turn, an increased incidence of food poisoning, and possibly dissemination of infection for more or less immune-compromised individuals.
Chicken are fed medicine ever since, for the sole reason they can’t live otherwise in poultry farms. It’s because of infections and sickness. They barely make it alive to the day they’re killed for human consumption. You wouldn’t worry for the obvious, when there is an abundant rain of meteors and terrorists. Stop eating your chicken raw!
I agree with you Greg, why be scared of a little bug, right
Hey right wing loonies chicken is on special this week, eat lots!
Hey Shediac and other left wing loonies *FREE* government subsidised chicken on sale YOU eat it.
Dude ,
Comments like that are totally outa line ! CFB Gagetown is located in NB , which is where i was was posted for 4 years.. Your attitude surely does not reflect the majority towards the west thankfully … Oiginally i am from BC and if someone was bashing the esatern province’s i step in the same! You my friend need to remove those comments from your language.. No need for that “one country one people”!! So stop geographically represnting yourself in a manner, because if that’s the best patriotic comment you got – then keep it to yourself !!
good one greg
live in a bubble or you could cut down by not eating chicken… there is a difference between bed bugs and not being able to fight off pneumonia..
Greg, what a moronic thing to say. You fail to see reality with a clear vision. It’s not an all-or-nothing scenario where either everything’s rosy, or the sky is falling. The reality is that there are real problems in this world, and of course it doesn’t meant that we avoid everything and go live in a bomb shelter. It’s the sheeple mentality to say “everything’s going to kill me anyway so why bother”. We continue to be part of the problem with this type of apathetic, ignorant attitude. The “solution” to this particular problem is in adopting organic farming practices. Take a look at http://www.themeatrix.com/ to learn more about this issue. When we place corporate profits over “doing the right thing”… when we fail to live in harmony with nature… we face the repercussions. Mainstream supermarket chicken is very high in bacteria because of factory farming practices… again please take 10 minutes to view the animation at http://www.themeatrix.com/ to learn more.
You are so right, it’s all about greed. What happened to the small family farm?
The Meatrix, seriously, You actually think that is a credible picture of farming in Canada? The Onion is a more credible source of information. When is the last time you’ve actually been to a chicken farm in Canada to see first hand the food safety and security regulations and protocols in place.
If several virus’s are found in most of the chicken you are eating, and some of them are highly resistant to antibiotics and you not concerned… You’re stupid!
I am concerned as well about bacteria on hands, hard surfaces, chicken, meats, fruits, vegetables and fish!
I came across a great product solution called OPURA which removes 99.9% of harmful bacteria…and it works!
After 26 years of raising commerical broiler chickens, there are a couple of points that need to be made clear. Adding hormones to poultry feed is not legal in Canada. OFSAP and HACCP rules for antibiotics require a vet’s prescription and strict documentation. Also, there are very few antibiotics licenced for both poultry and humans. Last farmers need to be certified to administer antibiotics to the animals in their care.
Why don’t you raise them naturally?
I’m not worried; I COOK the chicken meat I buy!
Cooking does not kill all types of bacteria, just as freezing them doesn’t. This also doesn’t include possible strains that have mutated/adjusted we are not aware of.
DNA denatures (breaks apart) at 97 degrees Celsius, doesn’t it?
I am concerned as well about bacteria on hands, hard surfaces, chicken, meats, fruits, vegetables and fish!
I came across a great product solution called OPURA which removes 99.9% of harmful bacteria…and it works!
It’s well and good to cook chicken to kill bacteria, but it also not out of the realm of possibility that in preparing the chicken you miss cleaning a spot, or something drips somewhere and you miss it, and then you 2 year old touches that spot and picks their nose. Bacteria is small and hard to spot ya know!
yeah and this would really matter if we didn’t COOK OUR CHICKEN BEFORE WE ATE IT.
the moral of this story is don’t eat raw chicken… or feed your dog raw chicken.
thats nothing, 98 percent of “conservatives” *are* harmful bacteria.
does that include chicken from hutterite farms ?
I ALSO WANT TO BAN THE BURKA AT VOTING BOOTHS
Hey Don Just don’t wear it!
Shediac !
Your one ignorant son * a B**ch that guy is voicing his opinion , because that’s what we went to WAR for so people could speck freely in this country and not be opressed .. You on the other hand need a foot shoved into your mouth, because you are plainly being a smart mouth little p@@@k.
this is not news in regards to bacteria, most chefs and homeowners know that 90% of chickens have samonella……but the resistance to antibiotics is scary….does this mean if I under cook a resistant chicken and get sick and they give me antibiotics they will be ineffective????
Yes… that is exactly what it means. They are diluting the effect of our antibiotics by overusing them. It isn’t cooked chicken that is the worry, it’s cross contamination from not having washed everything down after it has come in contact with raw chicken… the cutting board, the knives, the plates, your hands, the towel you dry your hands with… everything must be decontaminated, it’s all a source of bacteria once it has come in contact with the chicken or chicken juice. Everything!
What is chicken ‘juice’ ???
A better word might be … blood ??
We eat so much chicken we must have developed an immunity to this bad bacteria.
The antibiotics are obviously out of date !
Exactly the point… there aren’t very many antibiotics out there… we are quickly running out. MRSA, C Difficile, etc are all super bugs that we have trouble treating because of the overuse of antibiotics. The antibiotics aren’t out of date, we just use them too much and the bacteria is adjusting.
Apart from the fact that we should all be concerned with contamination in the food we eat, it is very unpleasant when journalists sensationalise a finding from some dubious report.
Canadian chicken and Canadian farmers are probably the best in the world and follow a very strict code of transparency in its farming practices. Sure, there are times when there are health challenges in which case, some medications are administered. However, I refuse to believe that the practice is such that it poses health risk.
The report on this issue on the television was one sided and deliberately cut short to simply make it sensational and alarm people unnecessarily. It is irresponsible journalism and one that can destroy an industry indiscriminately.
May I suggest that they conduct similar tests on lettuce and vegetables coming from the U.S. and other southern destinations and see if E.Coli is absent.
I disagree with you completely, and it’s fairly obvious, that you are also incorrect in assuming that what should be ‘safe’ farming practices are being followed here in Canada, or indeed even understood. I don’t think anyone at this point knows what needs to be done to keep the food chain safe with less use of antibiotics.
And how was the report one-sided? They spent a lot of time interviewing the head of the Chicken Farmers of Canada, who of course had their whole PR team there ready to try and discredit the findings, which from my understanding they could not.
The point of this story is that these farmers have got to find a way to make these farms less prone to infectious disease outbreaks, without ‘selling the farm’ on antibiotics.
I have no doubt that each and every one of these Canadian farmers is doing their utmost to run a safe and clean farm, but if there is a fundamental flaw that allows these infections to permeate a flock that requires ongoing antibiotics from birth, then that’s a problem. Is it the way they are housed?
The one french Canadian farmer that is running an organic farm, spoke of the problem that his chicks have to come from existing stock, who already have an immunity to some antibiotics form the get-go. That too is a problem.
Antibiotics are one of our main lines of defense against infectious disease. They have been consistently abused mostly by humans, but also by farming. I’m sure it would be a greater issue for you if someone you knew or loved was ill with something that years ago may have been treated pretty easily with an antibiotic.
the fundamental flaw in the system is capitalism, and the motive of profit as be all and end all. Chicken farmers do the best they can with the economic conditions available. Chicken factories have a higher incidence of disease and require more antibiotics. Chickens less confined would not be in such a need, but would cost more to grow. Its always about profit.
Unchecked capitalism, yes.
Indeed, resistance to drugs is a devastating problem. I lost my mother unnecessarily from C.Deficile that she contracted within days of visiting a local hospital…
My contention is that there is a tendency to sensationalise and scare the people when it comes to food and in this case , it is chicken.
The problem is very serious. Nonetheless, with what we call an advanced Western society, antibiotics were a God-send and I would suggest that we put the onus on the indiscriminate use of antibiotics on the shoulders of Drug companies and the physicians that prescribe them.
Farmers are simply taught what is necessary to do and to produce food for the cities.
The notion that all natural and organic and free range etc. is bunk and I can honestly say that much of it is designed to grab a few more dollars for the effort.
What I am not convinced of is that this society can obtain what it wants to eat with romantic ideas of natural food grown by a hippie.Just won’t cut it. The northern climate just cannot allow these romantic notions.
In my travels to poorer countries be it East Africa, Far East or Central America, I cannot help thinking how natural the food is. Chickens pecking away on small plots and eating rubbish ,bugs, worms etc. Try eating one of those chickens as a westerner and you might think your teeth will fall off. Same with goats and cattle.
At the end of the day, that kind of practice cannot serve the demands of the MARKETPLACE..unfortunately, that is reality!
The people and companys that raise our meat and vegetables need to change there thinking as like every thing else to day the only thing that maters is money, the more they make the better. But no one cares about the people if all foods were checked by the goverment there would be next to nothing in the stores.And who let all these chemicals be used. The governments did this and are now complaining about the cost of our medical system.
stop eating flesh of all sorts – it is unhealthy for us and unfair for the animals – but we live in a death centered world so…
Yah , sure … Then you can get your bacteria from a better source like ; lettuce , spinach , carrots , bean sprouts , or pretty much any thing that is grown on this planet and it’s toxic environment that we have ALL created !!!
…so they will all die off and we will pay through taxes to keep them alive…it’s survival of the fittest.
a vegetarian might in the future be the only way to survive in today’s world.
I wonder if the findings are MRSA and VRE. I wish they would of published the strains.
I’m surprised that there are so many negative comments. I think this is an area that deserves long term examination. I don’t think it looks down on chicken farmers at all, if anti-bacterial drugs are indeed causing this it is way above anything that they could have been expected to foresee. Certainly don’t expect them to be preventing something based on research that didn’t exist, irrelevant of their training. But drug resistant bacteria kills, shuts down hospitals, it’s serious stuff and something that we need to keep addressing.
Ignorance breeds on the Internet and the offspring is stupidity.
I appreciate reading and research is hardwork for most, but for those who do it, they would know cooking does not prevent exposure to the bacteria on the chicken.
But don’t worry. Trust the edible substance industry. Cancer, obesity, and type-2 diabetes are lifestyle choices.
Hey Cybernaught,
I don’t know about Cancer and obesity, but type 2 diabetes is not a life style choice. It is genetic. Please keep your comments to subjects that you have some knowledge of.
Even more frightening, the researchers found some of the bacteria had resistance to “six, seven, or even eight different types of antibiotics.”
—–
Are we suppose to use antibodies when we cook chicken? I always thought that we had to be careful when handling chicken.
“in a study conducted by ‘Marketplace’” with the participation of Canadians Amateur UFO Sighting Society… “67% of Chicken is Composed of Aliens Recovered from Downed Spacecraft – Study Says”
Possibly Greg could take on the role of King’s taster and snack on a few infected chicken-wings and report his findings back to us.
Where did the chicken come from they tested,was it all from Canada.
Here here now that’d a comment i stand by ! If this is Terry Ward in Merrit all the better man
)
Cheers Capper
Alternative technologies are being developed to replace the use of antibiotics as growth promoters such as, phage therapy, vaccines and bacteriocin probiotics. In the mean time, cook your food. Most of these infections will run their course without antibiotic treatment.
There was a second part of the study on Organic Meats which appeared on Saturdays report, couldn’t catch it , did anybody see that part? That should give us a background level of bacteria. Wouldn’t be surprised if you had even more bacteria there? Anybody see the second part??
Once again….It’s not the fact they simply have bacteria, it’s the fact they are resistant to antibiotics. The farmers inject them with antibiotics out of financial greed, not for the public benefit. The farmers should be prevented from this action for the good of the public. Bacteria mutates with exposure to antibiotics becoming resistant to it. If we are lucky, we can perhaps come up with another type of antibiotic, unfortuately however, this is more often beyond the ability of researchers.
financial greed?!? do you really think chicken farmers are raking it in? moderate the hyperbole a tad, call it maybe “the need to make some kinda money to pay these loans and maybe even eat.” the farmers are not the villains, and even the villains are only sorta villains…. they mean well, but have horrendously misarranged priorities compared to …. say…. me……
I have seen the conditions that chickens are raised in when it comes to medium and large productions farms. I will ot dictate to others on whether they should eat chicken of not as it is their choice. What I do advocate is for humane farms such as free range smaller facilities. When you force animals in extreamly cramped spaces to the point that they are on top of one another, and add to that sanitary conditions it’s obvious that antibiotics will be required. Smaller farms that pactice free range chicken farming have a healthier animal, and humane practices. Heathier food = healthier human
I believe you mean free run conditions rather than free range, as free range is an impossible production system to practise all year round in Canada due to weather.
That’s it. We have to ban food. If you eat, you are a terrorist or support terrorists.
*stomach grumbles*
Shut up tummy… You terrorist
Scaremongering garbage. The CRTC want to lift truth restrictions on reporting and we’re already reading crap like this?
Unreferenced statistics are invalid. Did the reporter get paid for writing this?
Bacteria is EVERYWHERE !
Always has been … Always will be !
It may kill us all … It may not !
I just hope I wake up for a few more mornings before they get ME !!
First the cows were mad because the swine had a flu then on to chickens. If the chickens can survive all these untreatable bugs I guess sooner or later chickens will rule the world.I wonder if they will test humans for bacteria.
I only eat fully cooked research scientist. My only worry is getting “Mad Scientist Disease”. =)
About forty years ago I got about a dozen chicks- culls from a local hatchery in SW Ontario for the pre-schoolers in a Nursery School where I was the teacher. My family lived in the country, so I knew that I could give the chicks a home when they outgrew the classroom. My Grandma said I could feed them oatmeal – she was a farmer. Well, the chickens began to falter and fail, and die! Finally someone told us we would have to feed the chicks a medicated starter – and they were correct, we deduced, when the chicks that were left began to flourish on this fancy food. Life has not changed much, it seems. We’ve just been too busy eating chicken to notice what seems to be a progression. How many other facets of life reflect the balance between money making and health issues and animal welfare – or some other aspects of life in this kind of fragile tension. Who has been paying attention?
Here’s something that you may have lost sight-of. While 2/3 of the chickens may have had bacteria on there flesh, I guarantee that 100% of the people who eat them have bacteria on, and within, their bodies! Let’s get realistic folks!
Only 67%? I always thought that 100% of chicken had bacteria.
Since I don’t season my chicken with antibiotics, I am not too worried about them being drug resistant. I usually cook my chicken well done and in our house we don’t normally serve chicken rare.
The level of useless information here is amazing. Instead of trying to look intelligent with your futile comments, how about posting links to farms who have good practices? How about links to alternatives or solutions, not an idiotic “cook your food”. If I had you there in front of me, I would so kick all of your butts onto a bacteria infested humongous chicken soup.
Oh and by the way I am looking for those links and will repost ASAP…
Do hurry with the links. I won’t be able to sleep tonight until I have links to blah blah blah …
eat beef, and fish
mercury and Mad cow save a chicken
I was talking to Johnson about this and he said as long as you blink twice prior to consuming the chicken meat there will be no problem.
I think some of you misunderstood the point of the article. It wasn’t that they contained bacteria, but bacteria that have become resistant to at least one type of antibiotic. It also had nothing to do with how you prepare your chicken or how clean your kitchen is. Please read the article to the end.
Also I can’t find any references to how this study was conducted or who this “Marketplace” group really is. If this turns out to be a valid study at all, based on the sample size, it only justifies further studies.
Audrey M. Your Grandma was absolutely correct about the efficacy of oatmeal for raising chicks, but I’ll bet that her chicks were out scratching in the yard for bugs to supplement their diet. Yours were being raised in a classroom without that extra nutrition and needed the complete diet provided by the commercial feed.
To others: if are concerned about where your food comes from, connect with a local farmer and pay the extra that her/his small scale operation requires to make it possible. When we run out of fossil fuels, back yard gardens and local farmer’s markets will be the ONLY way to get food. Why wait?
Just another tactic to make all food process by your local friendly neighborhood government mandatory. Farming is on the rise as people are trying to eat healthier. So now they implement scare tactics so the farmers go out of buisness.
Same move that they made with whole milk straight from the cow. Oh no.. it contains bacteria.. we must sterilize the crap out of it and add all these unnatural preservatives .. that cause this .. this and this.
Then you wonder why there is an increase in diseases and new illnesses being diagnosed.
Whats a few bugs along with your chicken?
Beside all the fat in chicken meat your getting more that EXTRA meat for free, no?
You don’t spice your chicken with anti-biotics, you _cook_ it… Doesn’t matter if the chicken has anti-biotic resistant bacteria.
The media needs to stop trying to scare the masses.
Fear and consumption people, educate yourselves.
For those of you who eat raw chicken this could be an issue.
Yet again the media pounces on a pathetic piece of news without any research.
I fondly remember those days of good investigative journalism.
ALL,
that is (100%) of mammals have both good and bad bacteria 100 percent of the time.
A chicken is a mammal.
Therefore ALL chickens have good and bad bacteria 100 percent of the time.
The article is useless and un-researched, bla-media-cud-filler.
That is why you cook the damn chicken and stop eating it raw!
What scares me most is that the people raising chicken are large profit-oriented corporations, and not your small family farmer. Corporations are driven by bean counters, concerned only with the bottom line.. i.e. do whatever is necessary to keep the fowl alive. I am surprised to hear there are no Federal regulations governing the use of biotics administered to creatures in our food chain.
Its your choice to either eat commercial, hormone enhanced food products, or to seek out an organic alternative. It all depends on your own believe system. But I can tell you that you are what you eat, and your body rebuilds its tissues from the quality of food you eat. Its your choice, organic hormone free or commercially raised….
Talk about irresponsible journalism. Cook your meat, there is bacteria on everything…. EVEN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES! Growth hormones are not allowed in agriculture in Canada… that’s the US.
This tells me one thing…. chicken is suddenly going to be on sale in droves in the coming weeks due to this stupidity and I’ll be grabbing it all up!!
mmmmmm…
bacteria! isnt it like fat on bacon its what gives the taste
So many people seem to miss the point of this article.
Complete and utter dolts. We’re breeding bacteria that we can’t kill, that we can make us sick. Great! Smarten up. Antibiotic resistant bacteria=things that can kill/debilitate you. Smarten up.