MRSA bug discovered in meat and livestock

12 April 2012

A superbug similar to the MRSA which affects thousands of hospital patients has been found in farm animals and meat.

The bug, which can be passed on to humans and spread by them, is thought to be the product of intensive farming and the use of antibiotics to protect livestock.

Like many food bugs, it can be killed by cooking and it is normally dangerous only to those already fighting another illness. However, like hospital MRSA, its resistance to antibiotics means that it is difficult to treat once an infection has developed.

The bug has been discovered by researchers in the Netherlands, Denmark and other European states in pigs, chicken and dairy cows. Britain imports thousands of tons of fresh meat from Europe.

It is also believed that it is present here on farms which raise animals in near identical conditions to those on the Continent.

Once it is in the human population it lives inside the nose, which means it can be spread through sneezing or contact.

A small study by Kingston University in South-West London appears to have found strains of the bug in one out of 50 samples of pork and one of 100 samples of chicken. Tests to establish the exact identity of these bacteria have yet to be completed.

Farm animal MRSA is thought to have developed as a result of the widespread use of antibiotics on livestock.

It has mutated to become immune to the effects of these antibiotics. The Soil Association, the organic farming pressure group, claims to have lifted the lid on it following a pan-European investigation involving academics and politicians.

The scale of the problem was revealed in a letter from the Dutch public health minister Dr Cees Veerman to MPs in Holland.

In what he calls a "worrying development" he said that farm animal MRSA was found in 40 per cent of pigs as well as some dairy cows and 13 per cent of calves.

The bug has also been found in food during a small number of tests carried out last year - in 20 per cent of raw pork samples, 3 per cent of raw beef and 21 per cent of raw chicken. As many as 23 per cent of Dutch pig farmers are carriers of the same bug.

It is feared that a new form of MRSA - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - in raw meat could pose a far greater risk to the general population than the hospital variant.

Inquiries into the problem have begun in the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, France, Sweden and Belgium.

However, the UK's farming and food safety departments have carried out only very limited tests for its presence in livestock - and none at all in meat or among farmers.

Helen Browning of the Soil Association said: "We call on the Government to test both live animals and imported meat as a matter of urgency. It is already clear that farm animal MRSA could spread to the UK."

Experts say thorough cooking and washing hands after handling raw meat should offer protection. Dr Mark Enright of Imperial College, London, said: "My major concern would be if farmers were to contract this and pass it on to the general population.

"MRSA in itself is not life-threatening except in cases where people are ill for other reasons, where there immune systems are compromised."

Farms ministry Defra said: "No cases of MRSA have been recorded in food-producing animals in the UK. Defra keeps the surveillance of MRSA under active review."

The Food Standards Agency said: "We are keeping a watching brief on developments across Europe."

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