Poison bug 'more likely to be found in organic chickens'

Researchers claim they are more likely to carry the deadly food poisoning bug campylobacter than factory farmed chicken.

As many as nine in ten of the organic chickens showed up positive for the bug.

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And up to one in four carries a superbug version of campylobacter, which is particularly harmful to humans.

The claims, which follow scientific surveys of organic chicken sold by all the leading supermarkets, will seriously undermine the perception that these farming methods are healthy and nutritious.

Consumers may now question the value of paying £6 to £7 for an organic chicken rather than a factory bird at less than half the price.

Researchers looked at the bugs carried on the carcasses of 46 supermarket organic chickens and found that 89 per cent had campylobacter.

That is higher than the figure of 70 per cent that Government figures show is found in factory farmed chickens, which spend their lives in vast cramped sheds.

More worrying was a finding that 26 per cent of these organic chickens contained a superbug form of campylobacter.

The concern about these bugs is that they have a resistance to antibiotics.

Consequently, doctors find it hard to treat humans who become infected because antibiotic medicines do not work.

Campylobacter is the most common cause of food poisoning in Britain, ahead of bugs such as salmonella and listeria.

The research was commissioned by ITV1's Tonight With Trevor McDonald.

The programme presented the findings to Professor Martin Blaser, head of medicine at New York Medical School.

He said: "It's important to educate the public that organic chicken is not free of bacteria and it's not free of campylobacter and it has to be prepared in exactly the same safe ways that non-organic chicken is."

He described the symptoms, saying: "It can be a mild illness with a small amount of diarrhoeaor very severe diarrhoea with someone going to the bathroom ten or 20 times a day for a number of days.

"Occasionally people die from the dehydration.

"There are complications of campylobacter infection, one of the most severe is the Guillain-Barre syndrome which is a neurological disease leading to paralysis.

"Guillain-Barre syndrome can be fatal, or it can lead to permanent neurologic damage."

Superbug versions of campylobacter have emerged in response to the feeding of antibiotics to chickens to kill illness in the flocks.

The only way these bugs have been able to survive is to adapt and become immune to these drugs.

Professor Blaser said: "There is increasing evidence that people who have these antibiotic resistant bacteria have more severe illnesses."

It is surprising that such bugs should be found in organic birds, because the use of antibiotic drugs during rearing should be restricted.

The TV programme also suggests that some organic farmers are apparently failing to live up to promises to offer higher welfare standards.

The programme includes undercover footage from an organic chicken farm, the Traditional Norfolk Poultry (TNP) farm at Stow Bedon in Norfolk.

Footage shows the carcasses of young chicks on the ground, which have apparently been eaten and picked at by rats.

When challenged over the images, TNP defended the conditions, denied that there was a rat problem and insisted that its birds are monitored by vets.

The Soil Association, the country's main organic certification body, questioned whether the campylobacter found in the research were strains that are harmful to humans.

The organisation also believes that the superbug level of 26 per cent in organic birds is likely to be less than factory farmed birds.

And it suggested that the size of the survey sample, at 46, was not reliable to give a true picture.

The Food Standards Agency says the risk of campylobacter is completely removed if people wash their hands when handling chicken and cook it thoroughly.