An analysis of randomly selected turkey products revealed that almost 90 percent of samples contained some form of dangerous bacteria. As the first-ever laboratory analysis of ground turkey at retail stores across the country, the researchers found that almost half of raw ground meat and patties packages were infected with fecal bacteria.

SalmonellaStaphylococcus aureus

turkeysantibiotics



“Our findings strongly suggest that there is a direct relationship between the routine use of antibiotics in animal production and increased antibiotic resistance in bacteria on ground turkey. It’s very concerning that antibiotics fed to turkeys are creating resistance to antibiotics used in human medicine. Humans don’t consume antibiotics every day to prevent disease and neither should healthy animals.”



90 percent of the meat products tested had at least one of the five potentially dangerous bacteria



The current Salmonella standard isn’t strict enough. The USDA should allow no more than 12% contamination in ground-­turkey samples.

almost all of the infected samples were resistant to antibiotics

Salmonella



Many of the turkey products were contaminated with bugs associated with fecal contamination
  • 60 percent of the samples contained enteroccus
  • 60 percent were contaminated with Escherichia coli (E. coli)
  • 80 percent were tainted with Enterococcus bacteria
  • More than half of the E. coli were resistant to various different commonly used antibiotics
MRSA

Consumer Reports advises consumers to seriously consider switching to organic turkey products

Salmonella



“Although foodborne infections have decreased by nearly one-fourth in the past 15 years, more than 1 million people in this country become ill from Salmonella each year.”

Salmonellahave risen by 15% between 1996 and 2010 in the USAE. coli