Chicken superbug warning

Link: EDP24 - Chicken superbug warning.

Consumers were warned last night that chicken sold in UK stores could be contaminated with drug-resistant superbugs. Of the British-grown chickens analysed for a BBC1 programme The Real Story, more than half were contaminated with E.coli - which can cause large outbreaks of food poisoning - resistant to three or more antibiotics. More than a third of the 147 samples, which did not include organic chickens, had E.coli germs resistant to the important antibiotic Trimethaprim, which is used to treat bladder infections. Scientists also found 12 of the chickens had antibiotic-resistant campylobacter, the biggest cause of food poisoning in the UK. And Vancomycin-resistant enteroccci was found in one in 25 of the samples, although more tests would be needed to confirm the exact type of the bug found, the BBC said.