- Hello Jeff - This NEW STAIN of MRSA is extremely serious.
As the article points out. HALF of ALL Dutch farmers NOW carry the superbug
which was contracted from pigs fed antibiotics.
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- Pigs To Humans Alert Over New MRSA Strain
- * Half of all Dutch farmers now carry superbug
- * Urgent call to screen UK lifestock and
test imports
-
- By Ian Sample
- Science Correspondent - The Guardian
- 6-26-7
-
- Campaigners today call for urgent tests on the UK's farm
animals after the emergence of a new strain of MRSA which has spread rapidly
among farmers in Europe, causing an array of serious infections.
-
- The drug-resistant bug is thought to have arisen in pigs
fed antibiotics to protect them against farm-borne diseases and boost their
growth. The emergence of the new strain backs up fears voiced by some experts
that the heavy use of antibiotics in farm animals could lead to a drug-resistant
bug capable of infecting humans.
-
- The strain of staphylococcus aureus, known as ST398,
is resistant to commonly used antibiotics and has caused skin infections
and rare heart and bone infections in patients in the Netherlands, Denmark,
Belgium and Germany.
-
- A report published today by the organic farming organisation,
the Soil Association, says the superbug represents a new threat to human
health. It urged the government to introduce immediate screening of national
livestock and strict testing of imported meat products and animals from
affected regions, to prevent the superbug spreading to Britain. The report
reveals the swift spread of the new MRSA strain, which tested positive
in 39% of pigs at nine abattoirs in the Netherlands last year. A further
survey identified the strain in 13% of Dutch calves.
-
- Medical officials found that 50% of Dutch farmers were
carriers of the strain, a prevalence 1,500 times higher than the rest of
the population. In one pig farming region 80% of all MRSA cases are now
caused by the farm animal strain. A survey by the Dutch food and consumer
product safety authority last year found traces of the bug in 20% of pork
meat, 21% of chicken meat and 3% of beef.
-
- "It's going to get to the UK sooner or later, but
the government is doing nothing to look for it," said Richard Young,
a co-author of the report. "We should be doing routine surveillance
on imported meat and imported live chicks."
-
- The document also recommends a screening programme for
farmers coming from European countries before they work with live animals.
-
- "It's a new strain we should be looking for here,"
said Mark Enright, an expert in MRSA at Imperial College, London. "The
excessive use of antibiotics is always a bad idea. If you do that for long
enough, inevitably one of the strains that emerges will be good at causing
disease in humans."
-
- The new strain was first detected two years ago in the
Netherlands.
-
- A Defra spokesman said the government had commissioned
research into the spread of the infection among animals. "There is
no consensus on whether animals became infected from other animals or humans,
therefore the identification of MRSA in animals cannot be conclusively
linked to the use of antibiotics in animals."
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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