Grapes On Your Meat?

At first glance, you might mistake "Golden Staph" for a coveted apparatus in a J. R. R. Tolkien novel destined to tip the balance between good and evil or a sought after treasure in the next Indiana Jones film before realizing it's not that kind of "staff". Nay, the grandeur of Golden Staph isn't nearly as prominent, it is but a lowly bacterium. Better known to the scientific community as Staphylococcus aureus, this bacterium is known for causing illnesses. It's breadth of known illnesses include skin infections such as pimples, impetigo, boils, cellulitis folliculitis, carbuncles, scalded skin syndrome, and abscesses and continues to span onward to life threatening diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, toxic shock syndrome(TSS), bacteremia, and sepsis.

Mmmmm...  grapes. Err...wait a second! Don't eat those micro-grapes!

While one study performed at the UCLA School of Medicine (performed by A. Cole, et. al) estimates roughly 20% of humans carry Staphylococcus aureus in their nasal fluid, it is also possible to be afflicted with it from your food. The Instituto de Productos Lácteos de Asturias located in Spain claims that,"Biofilms are a common cause of food comtamination with undesirable bacteria." Biofilms are "microbial communities whose architecture includes microorganisms, biotic substances produced by these microorganisms and attached organic and inorganic substances from the environment." (Schlegelová) Gutiérrez et al. aimed to determine the presence of Golden Staph on,"food-contact surfaces in diary, meat, and seafood environments." (Gutiérrez) Their research shows that out of 442 collected samples, approximately 6.1% of them had a presence of S. aureus. The study goes on to state,"Profiles were clustered into 4 groups which were quite related to specific food environments. All isolates harboured some potential virulence factors such as enterotoxin production genes, biofilm forming-associated genes, antibiotic resistance or lysogeny. PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) fingerprints of bacterial communities co-existing with S. aureus revealed the presence of bacteria either involved in food spoilage or of concern for food safety in all food environments." (Gutiérrez) Most alarmingly, the conclusion they came to was that food industry surfaces could be serving as a "reservoir for S. aureus forming complex communities with undesirable bacteria in multi-species biofilms." (Gutiérrez)

A possible fix is to remove biofilms from the surfaces the food industry is using. However, biofilms pose an obstacle in that bacteria composing the biofilms are becoming increasingly more resistant to sanitation measures and disinfectants.

Drug Resistant Strain of Staphylococcus Aureus

Are these the same resistant bacteria plaguing the healthcare industry? Could the antibiotics fed to the animals being slaughtered be a contributing factor? What will all of this mean for the consumer of these products in the future? Stay tuned and lets explore all of this together.



Works Cited

Cole, et al. Determinants of Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Carriage. 8 Nov 2001. Web. Oct 2012.

Gutiérrez, et al. Incidence of Staphylococcus aureus and analysis of bacterialassociated. 28 Sep 2012. Web. Oct 2012.

Schlegelová, et al. Microbial biofilms in the food industry. Feb 2007. Web. Oct 2012.