Bookmark and Share

Saturday 6 October 2012

MRSA st398 - British scientific breakthrough?


Published yesterday by the European Union, but too long to give here in full. 

This is not going to please Britain’s government veterinarians. They can’t keep  faking it up with the world watching.

The world will be coming to investigate the geniuses that have kept Britain’s pigs free of MRSA, especially MRSA st398, for so many years, when virtually everyone else has admitted finding it in their pigs, pork, farmers and veterinarians.

They are going to want to know how British science achieved this apparent miracle, and use that information  to benefit the world.

Before getting too excited about a scientific breakthrough I suggest the EU starts by testing the veterinarians, then the pigs and the pork.

How can we tell they are being economical with the truth? 

One way is very simple, with no science required. 

If the pigs really were clear of MRSA, Britain's corrupt agricultural ministry, once MAFF, now DEFRA, would have been yelling it from the rooftops as a triumph of British veterinary science and collecting knighthoods and honours by the bucketful.

Other than giving a nil return following the last inadequate testing ordered by the EU, the silence is deafening.

Just a header and a selected quote:


Technical specifications on the harmonised monitoring and reporting of antimicrobial resistance in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in food-producing animals and food
EFSA Journal 2012;10(10):2897 [56 pp.]. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2897
European Food Safety AuthorityAcknowledgment Contact Description: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/efsa_rep/repository/images/bnt_down2.gif

Type: Scientific Report of EFSAOn request from: European Commission, Health and Consumers Directorate-GeneralQuestion number: EFSA-Q-2012-00555Approved: 24 September 2012Published: 05 October 2012Affiliation: European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Parma Italy

Pigs, in particular, have been acknowledged as an important source of colonisation with livestock-associated MRSA in pig farmers, veterinarians, and their families, through direct or indirect contact with pigs. In order to increase awareness and to assess the occurrence of MRSA in pig primary production across the EU, an EU-wide baseline survey was performed in 2008 to obtain comparable preliminary data on the occurrence and diversity of MRSA in pig primary production in all Member States through a harmonised sampling scheme. MRSA has since been detected in cattle, chickens, horses, pigs, rabbits, seals, cats, dogs and birds. An assessment of the public health significance of MRSA in animals and food was issued by the European Food Safety Authority in 2009.”