Potentially deadly superbug found in British supermarket pork

theguardian.com:

Some British supermarket pork has been infected with a potentially fatal superbug, an investigation has found.

Tests discovered that more than 10% of sampled pork products, including joints, chops and mince, were infected with bacteria that showed resistance to a “last resort” antibiotic used to treat serious illnesses in humans. The contaminated products included some pork sold under the “Red Tractor assured” label and RSPCA-assured and organic products.

The superbug is a variant of the enterococci bacteria that can cause urinary tract and wound infections, among other illnesses. In the most serious cases the bacteria can infect the bloodstream, heart and brain.

It has become resistant to being treated by some types of antibiotics, which means some of the medicines a doctor might normally prescribe would have no effect for treating illness.

Drug-resistant strains of bacteria are a significant health concern, with rates known to be rising across Europe. There are many reasons that bacteria are developing ways of getting around antibiotics, but one key issue is that antibiotics have been widely used in livestock production to treat and prevent disease, particularly on factory farms.

These farms can act as incubators for potentially fatal drug-resistant diseases in humans, and antibiotic resistance is now considered one of the world’s biggest public health threats. A UK government review on antimicrobial resistance in 2016 estimated superbugs kill at least 700,000 people worldwide every year, which could rise to 10 million extra deaths by 2050 if no action is taken.

The new testing, shared exclusively with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian, suggests the enterococci superbug is more widespread in UK meat