Via Yle Uutiset: Growing ’superbug’ threat in Finnish broiler meat – but still safest in EU. Excerpt:
A fresh report from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) indicates that there are ever-higher levels of aggressive, antibiotic-resistant bacteria in broiler meat sold in the EU. This first pan-European study is based on samples from 2016.
For instance coli bacteria, which are usually harmless or even beneficial when found in humans’ or animals’ intestines, can cause infections when they appear elsewhere. These can usually be cleared up with antibiotics – but some bacteria can also defend themselves by breaking down antibiotics into a harmless form, using ESBL enzymes.
“E. coli bacteria are normal microbes in our digestive system, but in certain conditions they can also cause serious infections. And when they have the ESBL ability, then drugs are not effective,” says Dr Annamari Heikinheimo, a researcher and lecturer in food hygiene at the University of Helsinki.
More than half of EU broiler affected
The incidence of coli bacteria that can produce ESBL or the similar AmpC enzymes in broiler meat varies greatly within the EU. According to the new EFSA study, Finland had the lowest incidence of these bacteria in chicken, found in 22 percent of samples. In Belgium, they were found in virtually all broiler meat. The EU average is 57 percent.
“When you look more closely at the range of bacterial enzymes, it is often much broader in southern and central Europe than in Finland,” says Heikinheimo. “In our broiler bacteria, you primarily find a type of enzyme that to my knowledge is rare in human ESBL infections in Finland.”
According to Heikinheimo, the data reflects Finland’s extremely high level of food hygiene, which is the result of long-term cooperation, she says.
“In Finland, officials, researchers and companies interact closely. Since we’re a small country, I would hope that this cooperation continues. I’ve monitored many other countries where the situation is not like this,” she tells Yle.
Heikinheimo takes salmonella as an example. When Finland joined the EU in 1995, it was granted a special exemption for its own anti-salmonella legislation.
“The incidence of salmonella on Finnish farms is less than one percent,” the researcher says. “When you don’t have salmonella, you also don’t have the problem of resistant salmonella. The EFSA report notes that people elsewhere in Europe have very difficult salmonella-related infections that generally can no longer be treated effectively with antibiotics.”
