“Superbugs in chickens could be an underlying cause of antibiotic-resistant bladder infections in eight million women,” according to a new ABC News report.
Most of us have suffered through a bladder infection at least once, more certainly so if you are a female. One of my daughters has endured more than her share, which started at the tender young age of six months, and has persisted throughout her adult life. I’m sure there are millions of women who share this painful condition right along with her.
Bladder infections cause pelvic floor muscle spasms and make urination difficult and painful. Usually bladder infections are due to E-Coli, but sometimes the cause remains undetermined. Now a new report has surfaced claiming chickens dosed with hormones and antibiotics could possibly be the culprit.
“We’re finding the same or related E-Coli in human infections and in retail meat sources, specifically chicken,” Amee Manges, an epidemiologist at McGill University in Montreal, told ABC News.
A joint investigation, conducted by the Food and Environment Reporting Network and ABC News, has found what could be a direct link between bladder infections in humans and commercially processed chicken. Chickens are injected with antibiotics before the eggs they produce are even hatched, which is causing infections in humans increasingly difficult to treat and cure.
The report states that chickens raised on industrial chicken farms are given a massive 80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States for the prevention of the spread of disease among the birds before they are sold.
The study suggests the overuse of these drugs could have potentially devastating consequences for women. “I think these scientists are right,” Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a specialist in superbugs, told ABC. “But I think it’s going to be impossible to prove.”
In defense of the accusations made by this study, the National Chicken Council questioned the investigation, stating on its Web site that the study “misleadingly claims a definitive link” between the E. coli that causes bladder infections and the E. coli from chickens.
“The data is not an accurate representation of how antibiotic resistance transfers from meat to humans,” Dr. Charles Hofacre of the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine also stated on the council’s site. “The study’s authors are making some really big stretches of their data.”
In my opinion, there are several things to consider about this report before we stop eating chicken. I eat a lot of chicken, but the only time I have suffered with bladder infections is when I was pregnant, so I can’t really justify the findings in the report in my case.
In my daughter’s case, as I stated earlier, she started having bladder infections when she was six months old – she was hardly a chicken-eater at that age. So, we can’t blame the chickens for her problems, either. However, could the antibiotics in the chickens have made the infections more difficult to heal in her later years.
I know these are just two cases, but my reasoning is the same as that of Dr. Hofacre: the data is being stretched.
If you do suffer from undiagnosed bladder infections, and you think that commercially grown chicken might be the culprit, you can take some precautions to fend off the infections until there is more proof. However, consider that all commercially processed meats are treated with antibiotics, so the safest way to avoid ingestion of any is to avoid commercially grown meat across the board.
You can now purchase free-range, non-antibiotic, non-hormone raised chicken and other meats in some grocery stores and in all health food stores. You will also need to avoid eating meats of any type at restaurants and especially fast-food chains unless they have stated that their meats are organically raised.
The report goes on to say that “Researchers acknowledge that there is no study showing a definitive link between the E-Coli in chicken and infection in women, but point out that a study like that would be unethical because it would require intentionally exposing women to the bacteria.” Also, it does not state in the report how the information on the eight million women was gathered.
For the most part, I think that unless you are having problems you can directly link to the superbug chickens are allegedly causing, you have no need for panic. The results of the story needs further investigation before we cry like Chicken Little and yell that the sky is falling.
For the full report, visit abcnews.com.