Drug-Resistant Bacteria On Chicken: It’s Everywhere And The Government Can’t Help

Two important, linked publications are out today, both carrying the same message: The way we raise poultry in this country is creating an under-appreciated health hazard, and the government structures we depend upon to detect that hazard and protect us from it are failing us.

The two pubs are:

• A long piece that will be in the Feb. 2014 edition of Consumer Reports but has been placed online today.
• A companion report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, addressing some of the systemic problems raised by the Consumer Reports story.

Short version: Independent tests show that multi-drug resistant disease-causing bacteria are widely present on chicken, and the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has insufficient personnel, or legal authority, to change that.