Beware of under-cooked poultry, it could give you urinary tract infection

A new study finds that eating under-cooked poultry could cause urinary tract infection or UTI.

According to scientists, nearly 25 percent of poultry samples they examined from retail stores contained bacteria that shared the same genetic fingerprints as urine taken from patients with water infections.

Scientists were led to believe that the UTIS can be caused by E.coli, which is found in the gut and faeces of many animals.

The team suspect that UTI patients are consuming poultry that either isn't fully cooked or they're not using appropriate guidelines for handling raw meat.

The research was carried out by the University of California in Berkely.

While most of the bugs were harmless, researchers did find some types that cause diarrhoea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps.

E.coli infections, if untreated can lead to kidney failure and even death.

According to study author Dr Lee riley, a professor of infectious disease at Berkeley’s School of Public Health when they compared the fingerprints of the E. coli from the poultry and the human UTI cases, they found there's an overlap of some genotypes.'

The researchers presented the findings at the conference ID Week 2017.