High incidence of drug-resistant bacteria found in ready-to-cook poultry products

Fresh poultry has been known to be contaminated with Salmonella (bacterium), but a recent study of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai has revealed presence of the bacterium in ready-to-cook poultry products. Study released in May 2017 analysed presence of Salmonella in 87 chilled and frozen ready-to-cook poultry samples of four different brands purchased from supermarkets and departmental stores of Mumbai.

Salmonella, gram-negative bacteria, is known to cause food-borne illness. Most people infected by pathogen develop diarrhoea, fever and abdominal cramps within 12-72 hours after infection. Important sources of human Salmonella infections are poultry meat, eggs and foods of animal origin.

Out of the total tested samples, prevalence of Salmonella was found to be higher in chilled samples (51 per cent) than the frozen ones (5 percent). The study did not reveal names of the tested sample brands. However, it found one of the brands for frozen sample to be free from Salmonella. More than 80 per cent of the sampled microorganisms were multidrug-resistant with resistance to five or more antibiotics.

A total of 19 antibiotic resistance patterns were observed with the most predominant pattern being Nalidixic Acid, Sulphamethizole, Chlortetracycline, Kanamycin, Oxytetracycline, Trimethoprim, Tetracycline (29 isolates) followed by Ampicillin, Cephalothin, Nalidixic Acid, Sulphamethizole, Chlortetracycline, Kanamycin, Oxytetracycline, Trimethoprim and Tetracycline (16 isolates). Many of these are used to treat human infections.

Due to the high incidence of Salmonella and resistance to multiple antibiotics, the study concluded that modern food processing techniques, adopted by the industry, is not effective and sufficient to produce microbiologically safe products.