Perdue Too Chicken to Quit Antibiotics Cold Turkey

Donald Ross, a poultry worker in Virginia, nicked his finger one day on the job. The subsequent infection ballooned into a lesion so unresponsive to antibiotics that it had to be surgically removed, according to a report in the Baltimore Sun. Poultry workers spend their days feeding birds, transporting and weighing them, and then hanging them on hooks, slaughtering, and packing them. Often they do not wear gloves or protective clothing while they do this messy work, and bird feathers and bits of fecal matter can piggyback on their clothes and shoes. Chances are they bring home dangerous bacteria, the kinds that are resistant to antibiotic treatment.