Superbugs in chickens may have caused 8 million women to have an antibiotic-resistant bladder infection.
According to an ABC News investigation, researchers at McGill, a public research university, stated that their research found that drug-resistant E. coli in chickens could be transferred to humans and then manifest as a difficult to treat bladder infections.
Reportedly, chickens are often given antibiotics to stimulate growth and restrain disease prior to being killed and sold in grocery stores.
“What this new research shows is, we may, in fact, know where it’s [the antibiotic-resistant bladder infections are] coming from. It may be coming from antibiotics used in agriculture,” Maryn McKenna, a reporter for Food and Environment Reporting Network, which conducted the investigation stated.
However, the National Chicken Council does not agree with these findings; they do not believe that the drug-resistant bacteria is coming from the chickens.
“The studies in question make the assumption that humans carrying these E. coli acquired them from poultry. The strains did not originate in poultry and likely entered these farms from sources originating in human communities. Perhaps most importantly, the potential transmission of antibiotic resistant E. coli to humans says nothing about why these E. coli are antibiotic resistant in the first place. The resistances observed in these E. coli are common globally and are unlikely to be attributed to chickens given the few antibiotics available for use in poultry in the U.S.,” the council said in a statement.