'Deadly' bug in two-thirds of chicken on sale

Published on Tuesday 6 October 2009 22:23

A FOOD bug that makes 55,000 people ill a year is present in 65 per cent of chicken on sale in the UK, research showed yesterday.

Campylobacter, which causes diarrhoea, cramping and abdominal pain, was found in almost two-thirds of chicken samples tested, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) found. Salmonella was in 6 per cent of samples.

The illness, which can be prevented by properly cooking meat, usually lasts one week, although some people don't show any symptoms.

Those with compromised immune systems are at risk of the bug spreading to the bloodstream and causing a life-threatening infection.

The levels of campylobacter in chicken remain almost unchanged since the agency's last survey in 2001 and Andrew Wadge, director of food safety at the FSA, said it showed more action needs to be taken by the poultry industry.

He said: "It is obvious more needs to be done to get these levels down and we need to continue working with poultry producers and retailers to make this happen.

"Other countries like New Zealand and Denmark have managed to do so, we need to emulate that progress in the UK."