The tests found that more than 10% of pork products, including knuckles, steaks and ground meat, were contaminated with bacteria that showed resistance to a “last resort” antibiotic used to treat serious illnesses in humans. The contaminated products included some pork sold under the ‘Red Tractor assured’ label and RSPCA assured and organic products. superbug is a variant of enterococcus bacteria that can cause urinary tract and wound infections, among other illnesses. In the most severe 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 have no effect in treating the disease. Drug-resistant strains of bacteria are a major health concern, with rates known to be increasing across Europe. There are many reasons that bacteria develop ways to circumvent antibiotics, but a key issue is that antibiotics have been widely used in animal production to treat and prevent disease, particularly in factory farms. These farms can act as hotbeds 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 antimicrobials kill at least 700,000 people worldwide each year, which could rise to an additional 10 million deaths by 2050 if no action is taken. The new test, which was shared exclusively with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian, suggests that enterococcus is more prevalent in UK meat than previously thought. A government survey published in 2018 found it in one in 100 pork and poultry samples. But the new tests found it in 13 of 103 samples and also detected 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 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 consumer has x-ray specs to see what these findings show. There is no tag.” In response, a Red Tractor spokesperson said its certified pig farms were 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 would require lower use of antimicrobials, which would, in turn, reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance developing. This would 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 antibiotic use in organic farming. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate, the government agency 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 points out that careful cooking of meat should kill most bacteria or reduce it, and hygienic handling will help reduce the risk. It should always be kept separate in the fridge and hands, knives and cutting boards should be washed thoroughly after handling. In what is believed to be the first study of its kind in the UK, campaign group World Animal Protection commissioned Fera Science to look at the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant enterococci in pork produced under three different food safety schemes as well as non insured products. The researchers bought 103 pork samples – 22 with the Red Tractor label, 27 each from the RSPCA and organic schemes and 27 without a safeguard label – from supermarkets and online stores in Yorkshire. Everything was from British farms, except for the products that did not carry a safeguard label. The meat was then analyzed for enterococcus 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 infected samples, 13 were resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. Five of these were Red Tractor products, four were unsafe and two each were organic and RSPCA. Vancomycin – part of the glycopeptide class of antibiotics – is often referred to as an antibiotic of “last resort” because of its importance in treating the most serious and life-threatening infections. The glycopeptide avoparkin was widely used on farms to fatten animals up 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 production has contributed to the maintenance 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 in UK pig farms, despite calls to limit their use. A spokesman for Red Tractor said: “Our standards allow the use of critical antibiotics only as a last resort when absolutely necessary to protect pig health.” Although the UK pig industry says it has reduced the use of antibiotics on farms in recent years, concerns have been raised that as one type of drug was phased out, farmers and vets turned to others rather than fully addressing poor welfare standards. Cóilín Nunan, scientific adviser at the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, said: “Much higher welfare standards can reduce animal stress and disease and eliminate the need for more antibiotic use in pig farming.” The Soil Association said glycopeptides were never used in organic farming. One possible explanation, he said, for the vancomycin-resistant bacteria found in organic meat was because they had spread to organic farms through the environment, including the water supply. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST More than half of the world’s antibiotics are used in animals, and reducing drug use in agriculture is seen as critical to combating the problem. Earlier this year, the EU introduced stricter regulations banning the administration of antibiotics to groups of healthy animals. The UK has so far failed to commit to similar rules, prompting warnings that it risks falling behind in the fight against the spread of antibiotic-resistant disease. Mark Holmes, professor of microbial genomics and veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge, urged the UK government to adopt EU standards: “The management of antibiotics in UK agriculture has improved significantly in recent years, but there is always room for improvement. improvement. “ Lindsay Duncan, director of farm campaigns at the charity World Animal Protection, said: “The UK government needs to end the routine use of antibiotics in farm animals, as the EU has recently done, and recognize that reducing the consumption of animal products needed to address the myriad issues caused by factory farming.”
