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How Under-Testing of Ethnic Meat Might Contribute to Antibiotic Environmental Pollution and Antibiotic Resistance: Tetracycline and Aminoglycoside Residues in Domestic Goats Slaughtered in Missouri

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been growing demand for goat meat in the U.S. due to an increase in ethnic immigrant populations and mainstream interest. Unfortunately, goat meat is tested for antibiotic residues much less systematically than other meats, and in particular, 5 times less frequently than beef. It is also not tested for resistant pathogens. Recent increases in testing of other species has led to disproportionally higher rates of samples found positive for antibiotics, so we hypothesized that positive rates currently reported in goat meat are suppressed. As a proof of concept, we screened a total of 277 kidneys representative of goats raised and sold for meat in Missouri and found a 3-fold difference in positive samples between our results and those reported nationally in 2014. Further testing revealed contamination with five different classes of antibiotics of importance to human medicine, raising concerns about goat meat pollution by antibiotics and how it might contribute to human exposure and the rise in antibiotic resistance.

Authors

  • Lauren K. Landfried, MS, RD, LD, FAND, Saint Louis University
  • Patrick Pithua, MSc, PhD, University of Missouri
  • Brett Emo, MPH, PhD, Saint Louis University
  • Roger Lewis, PhD, CIH, Saint Louis University
  • Jonathan A. Jacoby, PhD, CIH, CSP, CHMM, Saint Louis University
  • Christopher King, PhD, CSP, CHMM, Saint Louis University
  • Carole R. Baskin, MSc, DVM, CPIA, Saint Louis University
Volume#: 80.2
Page #: 20-25
Publication Month: September 2017

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