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MyHealthNewsDaily
A food-borne illness known as toxoplasmosis doesn't grab the headlines the way salmonella or E.coli outbreaks do, but new research suggests that some organic meats may be more likely to carry this parasite, which can then be transmitted to consumers who eat these meats, if undercooked.
"The new trend in the production of free-range, organically raised meat could increase the risk of Toxoplasma gondii contamination of meat," the authors wrote.
The researchers point out that eating undercooked meat — whether organic or conventionally raised — especially pork, lamb and wild game such as venison, is one of the main ways people become infected with the toxoplasma parasite. People can also contract the infection by not washing raw fruits and vegetables, which may have come in contact with soil contaminated by cat feces.
Cats can spread toxoplasmosis after eating other infected animals and then passing the parasite along in their feces. This can contaminate not only home litter boxes, but the soil or water if a cat goes outside.
Although perhaps as many as one in five Americans carry the parasite, few people have symptoms because the immune system in healthy people does a good job of preventing T. gondii from causing illness. Toxoplasmosis presents more of a threat to pregnant women and people with a weakened immune system, especially if they change cat litter boxes or touch contaminated soil when gardening.
In its earliest stages, the illness causes flulike symptoms, and if severe, can cause damage to the brain, eyes and other organs.
The research was published online May 22 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Organic meat risks
The new research reviews the foods most likely to carry the parasite, and how people can prevent becoming sickened by it. The foods with the greatest chance of carrying toxoplasmosis parasites in the U.S. include raw ground beef or rare lamb; unpasteurized goat's milk; locally produced cured, dried or smoked meat; and raw oysters, clams or mussels.
Growing consumer demand for "free-range" and "organically raised" meats, especially pork and poultry, will probably increase the prevalence of T. gondii when people undercook and eat these foods, according to the study's authors, Dr. Jeffrey Jones, of the parasitic diseases branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and J.P. Dubey, of the USDA's Animal Parasitic Disease Laboratory.
That's because as more pigs or chickens are raised in less confined, more animal- friendly environments, they have greater access to grass, soil, feed or water that may be in contact with infected cat feces, or to rodents or wildlife infected with T. gondii.
Compared with chickens raised indoors, the prevalence of the parasite in free-range chickens is much higher, anywhere from 17 percent up to 100 percent, in some estimates. (But the risk is low for chicken eggs, the authors noted.)
Other research has shown that more organically raised pigs have tested positive forT. gondii than conventionally raised pigs.
Sheep also have a higher likelihood of being contaminated with toxoplasma, as do game meats such as deer, elk, moose and wild pig. Beef and dairy products have not yet played a main role in transmitting the infection, except for eating raw or undercooked ground beef.
Keys to prevention
"Toxoplasmosis in an under-recognized source of food-borne illness and attracts little public attention," said Douglas Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. "People are not as familiar with this parasite, so we think it doesn't happen much," he explained.
Yet, toxoplasmosis is one of five "neglected parasitic diseases" targeted by the CDC as a public health priority.
By one recent U.S. estimate, toxoplasmosis was the second-leading cause of food-borne illness deaths (salmonella is first), claiming more than 300 lives a year. The parasite was also responsible for more than 4,000 hospitalizations annually, ranking it fourth among food pathogens.
Cooking meat thoroughly should reduce the risk of becoming infected, Powell said, because parasites are usually found on the insides of animals, not on the meat's surface. He said people should be very careful when eating rare meat, and always verify cooking temperatures with a tip-sensitive digital thermometer placed in the meat's thickest part.
To prevent getting sickened by toxoplasmosis, the researchers recommended cooking whole cuts of pork, lamb, veal or beef to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and resting the meat for three minutes before eating it. Ground meat and wild game should be cooked to 160 F or higher, and poultry to 165 F. Microwave cooking may not kill the parasite.
As consumers shift their eating preferences, whether it's to organic foods or to less-processed foods, the microbial risks are altered, Powell said. "Whatever food- production system we come up with, some 'bugs' will find a way to adapt and flourish. So the key is continual vigilance."
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Leave a Comment:
Raw meat or under cooked meat can make you sick. duh. After reading this article I still prefer organic meats. I guess you could say I like my parasite risks without a side of antibiotics and animal cruelty.
Just because it's organic or free range does not mean it is cruelty free.
Wow, so they have absolutely no evidence of a problem but felt compelled to release this? Who might benefit I wonder? They only ever use the word "may", which means nothing. And what made them do this study to begin with if there were no current problems identified?
Even if they did find some sort of evidence for this, I wonder how it would compare risk wise to actually owning a cat like how many millions of people do right now?
Right on, Lunatoo!
How To Spot A BS Article 101:
1) The article uses subjective terminology, such as the words "may" or "some researchers say" or "can".
2) While alluding to a research paper, the article neglects to give the citation.
3) The "researchers" involved are not specified by name and organization.
4) The article does not give an opposing viewpoint, especially when the subject material is potentially controversial.
5) There's more, but you get the point......
Anyways, this article is BS. Of course there's a risk of parasitic contamination when consuming ANY animal products. The fact that there "might" be a potential for an increase of toxoplasmosis with organically-grown meats does not in any way deter from the fact that naturally-raised livestock are healthier for us, the animals, and the environment. This author needs a new career.....
The reason the "non" organic methods exist is because people are ignorant of the precautions you must take use "organic" products.
In some ways being dependent upon the non organic methods for eliminating the parasites, leave people worse off when the methods or not followed and the public doesn't know about it before consuming the contaminated products.
Fearmongering. Bought and paid for news. This article does no one any good except the big industry that competes with local, decentralized meat. Here's a more interesting scenario. All the meat in each region is forcibly washed in the same sink, because everyone who sells it has to bring it to a processing plant in their state. Now, instead of one cow that's butchered badly on occasion, they have to recall millions of pounds of animal, which ended up giving it's life for nothing, and probably killed 10 or 20 people before the recall.......I say if you want to buy beef from your neighbor, let it be legal. Sign a consent form, I don't care. Same goes for lettuce and spinach, and chickens and so forth.
The point would be to scare people away from organic meat. That article was based on speculation from research that is kept obscure. But let us all be scared. According to recent research if we do not get sick from organic food we will all be jerks. Is this all the processed food industry has to offer? Because I am neither scared or impressed.
So what I gather from reading this article is that I should cook my meats throughly? Wow. Talk about leading edge research. Raw chicken? yum!
@Buffy,
No the point wasn't to scare people away from "organic" meat. The concern is free-range meat. And I'll admit they did a hugely bad job of explaining why it is becoming a concern.
Tosoplasmosis has always been an issue for pregnant women. It is still the recommendation of most ob/gyns that pregnant women do not handle used cat litter or garden soil where cats have been or to eat free-range meat (but eggs are okay.) This has not changed.
What has changed is the number of people with dynfunctional immune systems. Organ transplants and certain diseases such as lupus and AIDS cause the immune system to fail to recognize the parasites. This wasn't a problem 50 years ago, but now the number of organ transplants and auto-immune and immune diseases has skyrocketed. No one makes the connection between something like lupus and a parasite until it is way outta control and deadly.
Chris, you're an intelligent individual, so I'm not going to blast you here. But I have to argue that it may be such that our dysfunctional immune systems are a result of a multi-generational paradigm shift about our dietary habits, and the risks that such changes impose. In other words, I believe (imho) that our weakened immune systems are a results of eating poorly-grown crops and livestock that are nutritionally void and full of toxic chemicals.
I don't have the time to write a dissertation on the many reasons for such. But you get the point. Our food supply is horrendous, and we are finally starting to wake up to the fact that it is hurting us as a society. Hippocrates once said:
"Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food."
Words to live by.
thank you Margo-2281755. my thoughts exactly.
well stated point, Indy Patriot-1934313. A sub-title for this article could be: "Nothings perfect, everything has its individual issues" Corporate food product is very different than the 'farmer down the lane' of yesteryear. The effects of the chemicals and medicines eaten is very poorly understood.
Free range cows eat cat poop. That is what the article wants us to be scared of. There was a brief recap. :)
Buffy, this comment made me laugh so hard I cried. So funny!!! Thanks. I'm still laughing while I type this :)
1 in 5 have the parasite.................. uh oh is that another guesstimate like 1 in 4 people have HPV.
Yeah for fear mongering! Everyone run out and buy your meat from Walmart and be sure to pick up your vaccines at the pharmacy!
Awesome, MSNBC auto-hyperlinks you to info on HPV............. see my point.
What a bunch of BS. Why the recent attacks on organic stuff lately, MSNBC? Lucrative new writing contracts from the corporatocracy, perhaps?
better science journalism maybe. just because it's natural doesn't mean it's healthy....don't agree, add poison ivy leafs to your next salad.
Uh, James, there is ample room for common sense here, buddy. No one is advocating that organic foods are perfectly safe in all regards. This discussion is far more involved than that.
Oh, and I'm sorry, but this article in no way demonstrates "better science journalism". The article is complete bunk.
2 Things:
"microwave cooking my not kill the parasite" What does that sentence mean? If I cook the chicken to 165 degrees in a microwave the parasite may still be alive? But if I cook it to 165 on a convential stove the parasite will die?
Obviously free range animals are more likely to come into contact with wild animals and therefore more likely to get diseases from wild animals, but is this really news? Haven't we known this all along? Just cook your meat properly--obviously.
It is difficult to get an even cook in a microwave. A consistent internal temperature lowers your risk, so consider it good advice.
I have an older meat thermometer, the recommended temperatures are higher than those recommended here which I'll be adhering to. Better safe than sorry.
Cook your meat properly. Next story.
In other news...if you don't wash your hands after wiping your butt, you might have poo on your finger.
Stay tuned for this and other insultingly obvious "warnings"
I will still take my chances with organic meat over industrialized meat any day!
One asite is bad enough.
A parasite is just double trouble.
Most people have parasites - that is a very ugly truth nobody likes to face. And everybody should periodically take herbal formulas to get rid of these parasites or at least keep them in check.
or maybe just accept that they are part of a healthy human biology....
Of course "organic" meats carry a higher risk of parasites. First of all, all meats are "organic". If you think there is such a thing as inorganic meat, you seriously need to go back to school. Seriously. Aside from that though, the reason people buy into this sort of thing is to try and stay as natural as possible, and I don't see a conflict here because parasites are natural.
let me get this straight
organic meat MIGHT have a parasite that MIGHT make you ill.
If you get ill you MIGHT incur higher healthcare costs.
If you incur higher healthcare costs you MIGHT not be able to pay.
If you can't pay the taxpayer MIGHT have to foot the bill.
We have to raise taxes on these products NOW because they MIGHT do some harm
because some people MIGHT not be smart enough to cook their food
Am trying to clean up my diet by eating "organic" Paleo Diet as much as possible now. Wonderful Meijer Stores have a complete organic line including eggs, butter, cheese, beef, chicken, etc. that I buy there. Plus a grassfed beef source called U.S. Wellness Meats is another I order from for hamburger patties, butter slabs, and bologne.
If people knew the ill effects from eating "factory farm" meats/eggs like high estrogen, GMO contaminents, antibiotics, bacteria, viruses, etc. they would stop buying them tomorrow I'm betting.
Wish I could find a good source for ice cold raw milk is all.
what a BS article. paid for by cargill too. i'll bet. they neglected to mention that conventionally raised meat is bathed in ammonia to kill the parasites. my god!, how did we all survive before industrial farming? i'll take my meat pasture raised on a smallish local farm please.
There are so many "mights" and "mays" in this article it fades into nothingness. There are natural pathogens everywhere and if you take proper care of your food, you'll be fine. From the article you would think cat owners would be chronically sick from this. I'll bet there has never been a case of this reported, from eating free range animals.
Eat Organic or not, die anyway. Nobody gets out of life alive.
Say, heres novel idea, or not, how about managing your diet, exercise, meds and weight for Cholestrol and your Blood Pressure... ya know the ones that affect your longetivty & quality of life more directly, than diet.
Metal70s
(suffer fools lightly, then bake at 350 for one hour)
Did you know that grass fed beef has a proportion of omega-3 and low saturated fats that does not result in high cholesterol but corn fed feedlot beef fat makeup will result in high cholesterol? Not to mention corn fed cattle have acidic stomachs which select for acid resistant e.coli which are then not killed in the human acidic stomach? (grass fed cattle have a neutral pH stomach, i.e. rumen.
More evidence that organic is nothing more than a scam to dupe people into paying higher prices for food that is no better than non-organic.
Oh, but it IS better, and in every way. Especially for the land itself, the waterways
I'll bet you haven't a clue as to the difference between factory farming and organic farming techniques and the differences in the food. Try reading "The Omnivore's dilemma", you just might learn something. Or stay ignorant, your choice.
Just like the subject of energy, everyone is now an expert on food. The typical food moroon: has never been to a farm, has never actually raised animals or crops much less a garden, thinks Whole Foods has the answer, would consign the peoples of developing countries to malnutrition/starvation by disallowing the science that improves crop yields, increases nutrients in food and allows food to be stabilized for cross-country transport.
Have another $12 peck of skanky looking strawberries from Whole Foods.
Next subject will of course be high fructose corn syrup (sugar) which is oh so much worse for you than say honey (sugar).
More proof that the US is something like 25th in science....our citizens are hapless dolts willing to believe anything that sounds good.
GEllis, I'd love to debate the biochemistry with you, as well as the subject of energy. With a degree in Physics of course, in your mind I wouldn't know anything about these subjects. My guess is you've reached your conclusions with no more research than reading commentators of your own political persuasion. Ignorance is bliss.
Hell, the Algae bloom estuary problem is enough to convince me of the pitfalls of liquid fetilizers.
And the typical Organic farm out performs the typical chemical farm in nutrient density as well as profitability to the tune of THOUSANDS of dollars PER ACRE, with NO subsidies.
This isn't even getting into the problem with pests CREATED by monoculture farming, nor the susceptiblility of monuculture to devastating disease epidemics.
Organic is vastly superior.
Hmmmm should I eat this bug, or just some of this pesticide?
this is like a dysentary vs. cancer scenario
hmmmmmm I'm torn.
You hit the nail on the head. Like our choice of presidential candidates every election, you have to pick between the lesser of two evils.
Finally! Now if we can just admit that gamma irradiation is the way to go for safely killing ANY disease vector in food, food borne disease will be a thing of the past.
Wondering when MSNBC will run an article explaining how the USDA subsidized practice of feeding corn to cattle, a ruminant animal, results in changing the cattle's stomach pH acidic from neutral, resulting in breeding acid resistant e.coli. So when humans ingest this e.coli, their stomach acid no longer kills it. Nah, why publish facts when you can publish a hatchet job full of weasel words like may, might, could. Total corporate farming shill job.
What they don't tell you is that factory feed animals are under such stress than a 15% loss rate is acceptable. To keep that statistic from rising, factory fed animals are constantly given antibiotics and medicaiton to keep them alive for their pitifully short lives. It is documented that those antibiotics are saturating our own systems and creating even more problems for humans. Meat-eaters have a much higher incident of stomach and intestinal/digestive cancers. The human body is not designed to eat meat. True carnivors have acids which break down meat more efficiently than humans, and digestive systems that eliminate meat very quickly. In humans, it sits and rots in the heat of our bodies for hours or days.
Cows naturally feed on grass. Because of government incentives for farmers who grow corn, factory farm or feedlot cattle now eat corn, a food that is unnatural for cows complex digestive systems, but cheap to provide.
I haven't eaten meat since 1985, and with good reason, not just the deference to the torture of innocent animals.
My meat consumption is very low because it's healthier. But I'll stick with organic to avoid all of the garbage that goes into factory processed products and because it's better for the environment. At some point (most likely very soon) I may pass on meat altogether and start my own organic garden. It'll be good exercise and save me money at the same time.
My meat consumption, via local farms, is very high bc for me, it makes me healthy. I also have an organic garden. Eating this way makes me feel good and keeps me from being a fat person. Love it!
A good reason not to eat any meat at all.
Perhaps good for you, but bad for me. I got healthy and slim following an eating plan of lots of locally raised meat and plenty of vegetables. Interesting that it was mentioned earlier in the thread about feeding ruminants corn. We feed people grain, lots of it, but unlike birds, we don't have a craw to process. I'll stick with meat and vegetables and skip the grain.
This story MIGHT be motivated or even generated by the NOT-ORGANIC meat producers.
Organic means you have a pure food product without chemicals, hormones, or contamination.
The real question is, who should be eating the contaminated, hormone, and chemical-pesticide-herbicide laden meat? YOU???
I grew up in a country where everything was "organic." Me and my son had: amoebas, trichocephalus, ringworms, tapeworms,toxoplasmosis, dengue, colitis and gastroenteritis Despite an almost compulsive obsession with washing hands, food, utensils, we both acquired all of the above and who knows what else.
Bottom line: just because it's organic, it's not necessarily better. Ever since we moved to the US, we have rarely had gastrointestinal diseases or parasites. We eat regular meat, fish, poultry, produce and junk food now and then. We are as healthy as ever, our diet is balanced, we work out and are tobacco and drug free. Go figure!