Meat contaminated with resistant bacteria‏

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-meat-bacteria-20110415,0,7997782.story Nearly half of all meat and poultry sampled in a new study contained drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus the findings are less about direct threats to humans than they are about the risks of using antibiotics in agriculture. "The fact that drug-resistant S. aureus was so prevalent, and likely came from the food animals themselves, is troubling, and demands attention to how antibiotics are used in food-animal production today, Antibiotics are routinely given to livestock to promote growth and prevent disease in crowded pens. About 11,000 people die every year from S. aureus infections The direct risk to meat consumers – a staph infection from the meat — can be reduced by cooking meat thoroughly and washing all foods or surfaces that come in contact with raw meat. But the wider danger is to public health—that antibiotics will become increasingly ineffective in humans.