Meat can harbor bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs), which may affect around 500,000 people in the US each year, according to a recent study. The research supports previous findings that meatborne bacteria can trigger UTIs. The study found that around 8% of UTIs in the Flagstaff sample could be attributed to E. coli strains found on meat products sold in the area. The researchers estimated that foodborne E. coli strains could cause 480,000 to 640,000 UTIs each year across the US, based on the Flagstaff data. To avoid picking up disease-causing E. coli from raw meat, consumers should make sure they’re following Food and Drug Administration guidelines for handling and cooking meat. The researchers found that meatborne bacteria carried “mobile genetic elements,” which are short segments of DNA that can move within a cell’s genome or between bacterial cells. By identifying the genetic elements that were uniquely associated with meat samples and matching them with those in human samples, the researchers determined that meatborne strains caused roughly one in 12 extraintestinal E. coli infections in the Flagstaff population.
Meat can harbor bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs), which may affect around 500,000 people in the US each year, according to a new study. The research, which was published online in the journal One Health, supports previous findings that meatborne bacteria can trigger UTIs. While the study used data from a sample of patients in Flagstaff, Arizona, from 2012, the authors estimated that foodborne Escherichia coli strains could cause 480,000 to 640,000 UTIs each year across the US, based on the Flagstaff data. The authors suggest that people should follow Food and Drug Administration guidelines for handling and cooking meat to avoid picking up disease-causing E. coli. The study’s senior author, Lance Price, a professor at George Washington University, said that people understood that uncooked meat could cause stomach upsets, but now researchers had identified that certain E. coli bacteria from raw meat were also causing hundreds of thousands of UTIs each year.
The research team collected bacterial samples from all available brands of raw chicken, turkey, and pork sold in nine major grocery chains in Flagstaff every two weeks between January 1 and December 31, 2012. The team analyzed all E. coli strains isolated from urine and blood samples at the Flagstaff Medical Center, the main clinical laboratory for Flagstaff and surrounding cities. The researchers found that around 8% of UTIs in the Flagstaff sample could be attributed to E. coli strains found on meat products sold in the area. The research provides strong evidence that meatborne bacteria can trigger UTIs, although the study has limitations, including using data collected from a single area and year, which may not accurately reflect the current situation nationwide.
A recent study analyzed more than 1,200 E. coli samples from human patients and over 1,900 from meat products to determine the origin of human E. coli samples. The researchers found that bacteria on meat caused around one in 12 extraintestinal E. coli infections, the majority of which were UTIs, in the Flagstaff population. The bacteria carried “mobile genetic elements,” which are short segments of DNA that can move within a cell’s genome or between bacterial cells. By identifying the genetic elements that were uniquely associated with meat samples and matching them with those in human samples, the researchers determined that meatborne strains caused roughly one in 12 extraintestinal E. coli infections in the Flagstaff population. Elizabeth Connick, a professor of medicine and immunobiology at the University of Arizona, who was not involved in the study, said that these findings underscore the importance of avoiding unnecessary antibiotic use in animals, which can lead to drug-resistant bacteria that will find their way into humans.
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