chicken (Page 2)

A whopping 96% of Tyson and 43% of Perdue chickens have beenfound to contain the dangerous drug-resistant bacteriaCampylobacter while only 5% Eberle and 13% of Bell and Evanschickens showed signs of the presence of the bacterium.

According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins BloombergSchool of Public Health, this is likely due to the use ofantibiotics in the raising of the chickens. Campylobacter isresponsible for an estimated 2.4 million cases of foodpoisoning a year in the US.

Producers claim that the use of antibiotics makes theirproducts safer, but the truth is the opposite, which hasbeen amply proved by numerous scientific studies that showthat the use of antibiotics in food production fosters thespread of drug-resistant bacteria.
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Richard Wool, of the University of Delaware, thinks chickenfeathers will make better microchips than silicon. Wool andhis colleagues at the university’s ACRES project (AffordableComposites from Renewable Sources) are trying to find newways to use natural and waste materials.
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Fears that the infectious prion proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease could be present in chicken fillets have been raised after bovine (cow) protein was found in breast fillets tested by the Irish Food Safety Authority (FSAI). The tests were done after a report by the U.K. Food Standards Agency warned that pig proteins had been used to increase the weight of chicken from Holland and Belgium. DNA tests on 30 chicken samples revealed that 17 contained bovine DNA, porcine (pig) DNA or both.

Peter Smith, chairman of SEAC, the English advisory body on BSE and its human form vCJD, says, “If the source of the bovine material was fit for human consumption under EU regulations, then these findings pose no significant health risk. The problem is we don’t know.”
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Marian Burros, in the February 10 issue of the New York Times, reports that the poultry industry has quietly cut back on its use of antibiotics in chicken feed. Public health and consumer groups have been demanding this for years, since it contributes to the growing resistance to antibiotics that fight disease-causing bacteria in humans.
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