Super E Coli In 32 UK Farms
UK - A superbug which kills hundreds of patients a year has been found on 32 farms, it emerged yesterday.Super E Coli In 32 UK Farms UK - A superbug which kills hundreds of patients a year has been found on 32 farms, it emerged yesterday.
"Bugs from cow dung can get into milk during milking."
Dr Georgina Duckworth.
The discovery raises fears that the infection is spreading to the human population through meat and milk.
The bug - ESBL E coli - causes around 30,000 cases of blood poisoning and urinary tract infection each year.
It is known to have killed hundreds of people over the past five years, although some experts put the annual death toll as high as 4,000.
Experts from the Government's Veterinary Laboratories Agency are due to reveal details today of the extent of the infection on farms.
The 'super E coli' is thought to have developed a high degree of resistance to antibiotics through their use in intensive livestock operations.
Its spread from farm to farm has mirrored the rise in the number of infections and deaths in the human population.
Experts at the Health Protection Agency are investigating a possible link between the bugs found in livestock and the sale of meat and milk.
Dr Georgina Duckworth, who compiled a report for the agency on the emergence of the E coli, concluded: 'The findings show evidence of people carrying these bacteria in their gut.
'If this is found to be commonplace in the general population this may point towards the food chain being a potential source.' During slaughter, the bug, which lives in the gut, can be spread through meat, making it a risk to abattoir workers.
Similarly, bugs from cow dung can get into milk during milking. E coli should be killed during pasteurisation but tests show that some forms of TB bacteria can survive heat treatment.
The Soil Association said movement restrictions and drugs controls should be placed on the affected farms.
Richard Young, the organic food group's policy adviser, said: 'All the indications are that infections caused by this type of E coli are increasing at an alarming rate.' In February 2005, the Daily Mail revealed the discovery of the superbug among sick and dying calves on a farm in Wales. By this March, Government vets had found similar strains on farms in Cheshire, Wiltshire and Somerset.
A spokesman for Defra, the food and farming department, said infected animals might have caught ESBL E coli from humans, from contact with sewage or from their food..
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