Researchers have found that meat and poultry sold in the U.S. is contaminated on a large scale by drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This bacteria can cause not only mild to serious skin infections (boils, abscesses), but even deadly illnesses such as pneumonia, infection of the blood, or sepsis, infection of the bone (osteomyelitis), heart failure through infection of the heart valves (endocarditis), inflammation of brain and spinal cord (meningitis), as well as toxic shock syndrome.