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Wednesday 9 January 2013

MRSA st398 in British cattle - Russia monitoring


This is not going to go down well in Britain's Whitehall.

The damage from this MRSA st398 fiasco is spreading widely into British cattle, dairy and poultry farming.

You can see the graphic on the Russian government site.  That's not good. You can also see that Russia, like virtually every other country with an effective state veterinary service,  takes the threat to animal and human health seriously.

The official British government line continues to be, that despite doing no meaningful testing, Britain's pigs do not have MRSA st398, even though it has been found in British people, cattle and milk.

And if it was to be in British pigs, Britain's veterinarians seem to claim it would not be very harmful and nothing to do with their antibiotic prescribing.

Anyway, here is the Russian government news complete with the British Union flag - mechanical translation.


Rosselkhoznadzor / News

Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance


Clarification of the highly methicillin-resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus MRSA ST398, in cattle in the UK

January 9, 2013

The strain identified by scientists at Cambridge University. MRSA ST398 was first discovered in pigs in the Netherlands in 2003, after which it quickly spread in the population of pigs in Europe and North America. A strain is a serious threat to both animals and humans.

Rosselkhoznadzor is monitoring the situation.