Salmonella in Tyson mechanically separated chicken that sickened nine inmates at the Bradley County Jail in TN last November is antibiotic resistant, according to the latest update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tyson recalled 34,000 pounds of the product, which was not sold retail, earlier this month. Institutions that purchased this product should not use it.
Tests on samples from three of the nine inmates sickened were conducted by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System for Enteric Bacteria (NARMS). NARMS is a collaboration of the CDC, state and local public health departments, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that was established in 1996 to track antibiotic resistance of foodborne bacteria.
Results from these tests found that two of the samples were multi-drug resistant and both showed resistance to ceftriaxone, an antibiotic commonly used to treat serious Salmonella infections. The two isolates also showed resistance to the following antibiotic combinations: ampicillin, cefoxitin, ceftiofur, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid; sulfisoxazole, tetracycline and trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole.
Antibiotic resistance is associated with increased risk of hospitalization or development of a bloodstream infection which can be life-threatening. Two of the nine inmates sickened were hospitalized. The CDC says it is still awaiting test results on the 19 other possible cases.
Mechanically separated chicken has a much looser consistency than ground chicken, more like a paste or thick batter. It’s normally used as an ingredient in hot dogs, bologna and luncheon meats, that are fully cooked. However, the Bradley County Jail and other institutions, received the product directly from Tyson in bulk tubes.
