Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to verify whether there was any validity to the claim that consumers could reduce their exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria by purchasing poultry products that were produced without antibiotics. Rinse samples were taken from whole carcasses from chickens grown in small flocks and marketed as antibiotic-free. Salmonella bacteria were isolated from 18.7% of all the carcasses sampled. Campylobacter bacteria were found on 96.0% of the carcasses tested. More than two-thirds (69.4%) of the Salmonella isolates were resistant to at least 1 antibiotic. The antibiotic to which the Salmonella isolates were most commonly resistant was trimethoprim-sulfa, with almost two-thirds (62.9%) of the isolates being resistant to it. Almost three-fourths (73.4%) of the Campylobacter isolates were resistant to at least 1 antibiotic. The most common antibiotic to which Campylobacter isolates were resistant was tetracycline, with almost three-fourths (72.7%) of all Campylobacter isolates being resistant to it.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 475-482 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Applied Poultry Research |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2006 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The research was supported by the University of Minnesota’s Rapid Agricultural Response fund. Special thanks to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) for doing the lab work and for the MDA poultry inspectors for collecting the carcass rinse samples.
Keywords
- Antibiotic-free
- Broiler
- Food safety