The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working on a new report on the threat of antibiotic-resistant threats in the US, said CDC Public Affairs Specialist Martha Sharan, in an email.
In the meantime, the CDC is working from its latest listing compiled in 2013, and the data it contains could be troubling for the US food industry. This is especially problematic in light of news earlier this month showing most quick-service restaurants received failing grades for serving beef raised with the use of medically important antibiotics.
Consumer Reports said the top 25 chain restaurants now no longer serve chicken raised with those antibiotics, but its annual review shows that nearly all failed the test for beef.
THE CDC ANALYSIS
The CDC said in the 2013 report that each year in the US, at least two million people get an antibiotic-resistant infection, and at least 23,000 die. It did not list sources of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi, but news sources, including Consumer Reports, puts the blame on meat and poultry producers.
Giving healthy animals and poultry low doses of antibiotics in their feed once was very common. The rise in antibiotic-resistant bugs in humans and pressure to reduce them has resulted in much lower use, but the practice continues because it helps keep animals healthy and growing.
The CDC report ranked the 18 threats from bacteria and fungi into three categories based on their level of concern to human health – urgent, serious and concerning.
Among the urgent threats to human health is a bacteria known as C. difficile, previously Clostridium difficile. This bug infects an estimated 500,000 people annually, resulting in about 15,000 deaths.
Drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae causes the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea and has developed resistance to the antibiotics prescribed to treat it, the CDC said. It infects 246,000 each year, but there were no totals on how many die from it.
TROUBLE FOR BEEF?
One market analyst said that if consumers put the two together and took it to heart, beef sales could decline.
The problem for the Consumer Reports annual analysis is that it is done with some organizations that many don’t take real seriously yet, the analyst said. Consumer Reports itself has sounded rather shrill at times in the past, but when an alarm is sounded in conjunction with the Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, the Food Animal Concerns Trust and the National Resources Defense Council, many consider the source and discount the news.
However, that may not always be the case, and beef producers need to step up with more process-verified programs that assure its customers that the meat they are eating was raised without antibiotics, the analyst said. People could become alarmed suddenly and avoid non-process-verified meat.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Cash cattle trading was reported last week in the Plains at $110.50 to $111 per cwt on a live basis, steady to up $0.50 from the previous week. On a dressed basis, activity was reported at $174 to $175, steady to $1 higher.
The USDA choice cutout Wednesday was up $1.11 per cwt at $211.39, while select was up $0.96 at $197.82. The choice/select spread widened to $13.57 from $13.42 with 95 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
There were no delivery tenders Wednesday at zero. There were six heifer retenders at one, and there were no other retenders, demands or reclaims.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Tuesday, was $154.93 per cwt, down $0.13. This compares with Wednesday’s Oct settlement of $154.62, down $0.45, and the Nov settlement of $155.92, up $0.05.