Consumer Reports Finds Widespread Pork Threat

Much of the US pork supply is tainted with dangerous bacteria, and the antibiotics given to pigs could be boosting drug-resistant germs, a Consumer Reports study finds. Some 69% of 198 tested pork samples contained bacteria called yersinia enterocolitica, which can cause fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Some 3% to 7% of samples contained certain other causes of food-borne disease, including salmonella, while 11% contained a germ linked to urinary tract infections. Some of these bacteria were drug-resistant. Meanwhile, a fifth of 240 pork products tested separately contained ractopamine, a growth drug that's banned in the EU, China, and Taiwan, though legal here. (More bacteria stories.)