On March 3 I published a story about a recent study that found MRSA in swine and their human handlers for the first time in the U.S. a few weeks ago and it looks like the story is catching on. A few days later I wrote a follow-up from the animal agriculture industry's point of view.
The study was done by Tara Smith, a University of Iowa epidemiologist. Iowa produces more pork than any other state. Smith joined two other scientists for a discussion of antibiotic resistance on Capitol Hill in February.
The New York Times published an opinion article about that same study Wednesday.
Though scientists say risk of contracting MRSA by eating infected meat is very, very low, it is another possible source of infection not previously accounted for. With all the problems the FDA has faced lately from Salmonella to BPA, I'm not surprised that this issue hasn't had much attention.
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I have spent almost decade on this disaster, day after day: there at the beginning, with pigs and in pig country when the horror story started
ReplyDeleteThere is little doubt that MRSA in pigs has been leaking into the hospitals for some years.
There was a nasty mutation to a porcine circovirus in Britain in 1999 which caused an epidemic that required huge quantities of antibiotics to handle the consequences.
MRSA in pigs was the result, usually the ST398 strain.
The Dutch picked up the problem about four years ago and commendably make everything they knew public.
Both circovirus and MRSA epidemics have now travelled the world along with accompanying cover-ups. It is quite a nasty situation - now coming to light in the USA.
MRSA st398, mutated circovirus and various other unpleasant zoonotic diseases have now reached American pig farms.
The people exposing the scandal in the US are to be commended.
I have extensive records available to anyone researching the link and can often answer general questions quickly and accurately.
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Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/