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FRIDAY, Oct. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Could a turkey sandwich or a bowl of chicken soup be hazardous to your health?
Poultry has that potential, according to research that suggests people who eat drug-treated poultry may be at increased risk of developing antibiotic resistance.
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Still, the findings are preliminary and shouldn't make anyone stop eating chicken or turkey, the study's lead investigator said.
"We don't want to suggest to anyone that they should alter their diet based on this," said Dr. Edward Belongia, director of the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation's Epidemiology Research Center in Wisconsin.
But federal regulators should consider the results as they make rules about the kinds of drugs given to poultry, the investigator added.
At issue is the use of virginiamycin, an antibiotic used in farm animals to boost their growth.
The drug is banned in Europe, but farmers are allowed to use it in the United States.
Some studies have suggested that virginiamycin can cause germs in poultry to become super-powered, much as overuse of antibiotics in humans has made some people immune to certain drugs.
This phenomenon, known as drug resistance, happens when an antibiotic is used so often that germs mutate around it.
It's possible for drug resistance to be spread through food. "When we consume food with organisms that have resistance genes, these genes can be transferred to our natural organisms, causing them to become drug-resistant," explained Molly Marten, a clinical epidemiologist at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego who's familiar with the study findings.
Belongia and colleagues launched their study to see if people who ate chicken or turkey treated with antibiotics would themselves become resistant to an antibiotic known as quinupristin-dalfopristin, or Synercid.
Synercid treats disease caused by Enterococcus faecium, germs that are normally found in the gut and can cause disease in some cases.
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