Antibiotic resistant salmonella contaminated chicken is responsible for 278 illnesses across 17 states according to the Center for Disease Control. This strain of Salmonella Heidelberg is putting 42% of its victims, twice normal, in the hospital. Because it is resistant to multiple antibiotics it is harder to treat and potentially more dangerous than food poisoning from ordinary salmonella.
The CDC has recalled 30 furloughed workers to deal with the outbreak.
The outbreak has been traced to Foster Farms chicken plants that were involved in a previous outbreak, according to the LA Times. The chicken has not been recalled because the salmonella is not considered an adulterant. Foster Farms could voluntarily recall the chicken, but the government will not under present rules. Health experts have been arguing for a change in the rules as antibiotic resistance becomes more common.
A salmonella outbreak in Foster Farms chicken contains several antibiotic-resistant strains that may explain an unusually high rate of hospitalization. ...
Investigators have yet to trace the illnesses to a specific product or production period, but said that raw items from the plants in question will bear one of the establishment numbers P6137, P6137A or P7632.
Scientists and doctors have long warned of the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria in animals routinely fed antibiotics, but poultry producers continue to heavily use antibiotics because
animals in tight confinement are prone to disease outbreaks.
CAFOs are characterized by large numbers of animals crowded into a confined space - an unnatural and unhealthy condition that concentrates too much manure in too small an area. Many of the costly problems caused by CAFOs can be attributed to the storage and disposal of this manure and the overuse of antibiotics in livestock to stave off disease.
The predominance of CAFOs is not the inevitable result of market forces; it has been fostered by misguided public policy. Alternative production methods can be economically efficient and technologically sophisticated, and can deliver abundant animal products while avoiding most of the problems caused by CAFOs. However, these alternatives are at a competitive disadvantage because CAFOs have reduced their costs through subsidies that come at the public’s expense, including (until very recently) lowcost feed. CAFOs have also benefited from taxpayer supported pollution cleanup programs and technological “fixes” that may be counterproductive, such as the overuse of antibiotics. And by shifting the risks of their production methods onto the public, CAFOs avoid the costs of the harm they cause.
The CDC has been following this case since July according to NPR. Foster Farms has been working with the FDA and CDC to eliminate the salmonella, but they have been unable to get rid of it. Apparently, this antibiotic resistant strain is hard to kill.
CDC has been monitoring this outbreak since July. It's likely that this outbreak is connected to a prior cluster of illnesses in 2012, also linked to raw chicken produced by Foster Farms. ...
David Goldman of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, "we decided to do some intensive sampling [for salmonella] in four different Foster Farms plants."
What they found is that three of the Foster Farms plants were producing products that were contaminated with Salmonella Heidelberg. And the chicken "contained the outbreak strains [of salmonella] that the CDC had identified to us as causing the illnesses," says Goldman.
Here's a CBS news video I can't embed.
http://landing.newsinc.com/...