Meat Your Killer – Morning Sign Out at UCI

Written by Sharmin Shanur and Edited by Rasheed Majzoub

Imagine living in a world where not a single antibiotic can cure a bacterial infection. Everyday illnesses like strep throat, urinary tract infections, or even pneumonia will become practically untreatable. You have a sore throat? Oh well, you will just have to wait it out until you recover or die from a self-destructive, biological tissue-attacking fever. A urinary infection? If your immune system does not save you, the infection will attack your kidneys, leading to death from the build-up of internal toxic waste. You have pneumonia? Well, your story pretty much ends there. I do not mean to paint a bleak picture of our future—a future in which our bodies have built up resistance to all antibiotics. But this is the world we will live in if we do not start taking antibiotic resistance more seriously.

So what is antibiotic resistance? Antibiotic resistance is essentially the ability of bacteria to overcome the effects of medication used to kill them— antibiotics [1]. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections like strep throat, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and food poisonings [1]. For many bacteria, when they come into contact with antibiotics for the first time, their cell walls are almost immediately damaged, leading to the destruction of the bacteria’s DNA and/or damage to the bacteria’s cellular processes [2]. At this point, the bacteria can no longer function and dies. But the story does not end there. Bacteria divide quite rapidly and some mutant forms that are not immediately harmful arise and thrive. It takes many mutations for bacteria to become resistant to an antibiotic, so this process is not an entirely quick one. In typical scenarios, the unharmful mutant form of bacteria continues to divide undetected, until a single mutant form that is resistant to the previously encountered antibiotic arises—this bacteria will no longer die in the presence of the antibiotics that killed some of its ancestors [3]. These are the bacteria that will continue to divide and create progeny that will travel from person to person— ultimately leading to antibiotic resistance [3].

Humans are not the only species susceptible to antibiotic resistance, so are animals. Much of the meat we eat is heavily medicated with antibiotics. According to the World Health Organization, animals are readily treated with antibiotics, not because they are sick, but to promote growth and prevent diseases [4]. Now for most people, the idea of preventing diseases is great, but if an animal that is not sick and is unnecessarily being given antibiotics, all bacteria in the gut, good and bad, will be indiscriminately killed [4]. The only bacteria that survive will be those resistant to the drug. These bacteria will then enter the food chain and make their way into unsuspecting omnivorous humans, who will also form immunity to the antibiotic [4]. The immunity develops because the meat that humans consume may have come into contact with the resistant bacteria during the slaughtering process. Food laws tend to prevent such contaminations, however, in very rare cases, in which food is not handled properly, the resistant bacteria infects the bacteria and then proceeds to infect the unsuspecting human through the digestive system. These antibiotic-resistant bacteria can also travel through the digestive tract and into the animal’s fecal matter, causing an increase in the breadth of contamination—research has shown that farmers often come into contact with these fecal matter and have the ability to form an antibiotic resistance as well [5].

A bacterium that has entered the forefront of antibiotic resistance conversations is Salmonella. Salmonella is the more frequent foodborne pathogen isolated by scientists in meat and poultry products. It accounts for 98.3 million foodborne illnesses and about 155,00 deaths worldwide [3]. In fact, there has been a growing trend in the resistant forms of Salmonella arising in both developed and undeveloped countries worldwide [3]. These strains are more virulent than older strains, oftentimes causing prolonged fever and gastrointestinal degradation [3]. Scientists believe that a large part of this resistance is due to the antibiotic field feed given to animals. The antibiotic resistant bacteria that often time grows in the gut of the animal comes in contact with the human population during the slaughtering process [6]. It is inevitable that the meat of the animal will come into contact with its intestinal and skin microflora during the slaughtering process, so the resistant bacteria simply finds a new home in the meat that is eventually sold worldwide [7]. Scientists have found that even eggs are heavily contaminated with bacteria, because they come into contact with the fecal matter of its parents, resulting in a possible animal to human transfer of antibiotic resistant bacteria [8]. Between 1940-1948, Salmonella was extremely sensitive to tetracycline, an antibiotic; however, as it was introduced to agriculture, in addition to human and veterinary medicine, 90% of Salmonella is now tetracycline resistant [6]. Within 50 years, the widespread introduction of tetracycline has practical destroyed its efficacy in both humans and animals. There are many additional antibiotic-resistant Salmonella strains that have risen. The most investigated strain, designated D104, has taken root in many developed countries. It has been found in practically every type of meat and poultry products. In fact, in 1998, a previous healthy woman died from an antibiotic resistant form of D104 [9].

Unfortunately, the growing number of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria will not be eliminated until governments around the world sign a legislative agreement to reduce antibiotic usage among farmers worldwide. Once the widespread use of antibiotics in agriculture is put to an end, more and more antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria will arise. Until we do something about antibiotic resistance, meat might just be the next killer of our generation.

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