Stopping MRSA cc398 - pig MRSA.

The route of many animal and zoonotic diseases, not least the very dangerous circovirus and co-infections, is in the live trade and semen-embryos. 

The Danes are, as usual, courageous in recognising the problem in MRSA, not least, Professor Frank Aarestrup.

We are talking about realised , not theoretical, risks to human health and the interests of the veterinarians in exporting and importing live pigs, embryos and semen about the world, have to take second place to human health.

Nobody, anywhere, voted to put veterinarians in charge of world human health, still less those making money from international movements.

It is up to individual governments to exercise proper control and supervision of their veterinary industry, until world organisations mobilise.

Extracts for a mechanical translation follow, the full report is here.

9th December 2012 

MRSA can be stopped?

Experts believe that more testing and a ban on trade of infected pigs is the way forward if we are to break MRSA curve. Agricultural say no.

Frank Aarestrup believe that MRSA can be controlled if you prohibit trade with the infected animals.

By Esben Christensen

It is a fact that a growing number of people become ill as a result of the dangerous MRSA bacteria.The figure has increased explosively since the millennium and looks back out to set a new record this year. 
The most common sequelae of the bacterium is boils, but it can also lead to much more serious symptoms, which at worst can be fatal. 
It is also a fact that the MRSA type that causes most cases CC398, better known as swine MRSA. 
All parties agree that the curves must be broken. But ending the agreement also.

Frank Aarestrup is a professor and research director at the National Food Institute, specializing in antibiotic resistance. He believes that a ban on the sale of infected pigs is the way forward...

...- It is a safety problem, not a food safety problem. It is inevitable that agricultural workers who are in direct contact with pigs, will get infected. But we must be aware of good hygiene, so they do not take it out of the barn, says Poul Bækbo, department of Pig Research Centre under the agriculture industry association Agriculture and Food. 

The workers, who therefore will inevitably be MRSA bacteria, as a result may experience symptoms such as abscesses, infections in wounds and at worst fatal poisonings in blood and spinal cord. ...