MRSA increasingly prevalent in livestock

A strain of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bacteria is reported to be becoming increasingly widespread in pigs, dairy cows and chickens, according to a recent survey.

 

US Food Animal Concerns Trusts (FACT) is calling for greater restrictions on the use of antibiotics for livestock.

 

Livestock herds could become a vast breeding ground for MRSA, a formerly rare bacterium found mostly in hospitals but now spreading beyond health care settings, according to reports.

 

But researchers are finding that MRSA bacteria are becoming widespread among pigs, dairy cattle and possibly chickens.

 

The MRSA strain found in livestock has been implicated in only a few cases of illness in people, but health officials are concerned that livestock herds could act as a reservoir from which the bacteria increasingly could spread to people.

 

Dutch authorities in 2003 were the first to detect MRSA in farm animals where they identified a new strain, called ST398, in pigs.

 

Studies since have found the ST398 strain in pigs, cattle and broiler chickens in various European countries. Pigs have also tested positive in Canada and, most recently, the US.

 

Researchers in Iowa found MRSA in nearly half of 299 pigs tested at two large-scale pork producers in Iowa and Illinois.

 

Livestock growers routinely feed a variety of antibiotics to hogs, cattle and poultry to boost growth.

 

Studies have found that the practice can promote the rise of drug-resistant bacterial strains.

 

FACT public health program director Steve Roach said there is enough evidence, including the rise of MRSA in livestock, to suggest the need to reduce the amount of antimicrobials that was being used.

 

The EU banned the use of antibiotics as growth promoters three years ago.

 

The US Food and Drug Administration proposed a rule that would have limited the use of one class of antibiotics, but withdrew the proposal in December.

 

The advocacy groups want the government to create a roster of antibiotics that are essential for fighting human infections, then ban the use of these agents in non-sick animals and restrict their use in sick animals, according to the report.