.
It seems amazing that Britain’s government vets can test pets for MRSA but neglect to test livestock or meat and packaging on the shelves of the supermarkets.
Actually, it is not amazing at all: they have long intended to try to blame pets to try to save veterinary skins.
The minutes of transatlantic meetings show that Defra were trying to encourage the North American vets to join them in pushing the cover story that people give MRSA to their pets.
It will backfire, of course, who wants an MRSA carrying vet near their pets?
Quite aside from the public reaction and abandoned pets, there will be “civil war” between the more powerful livestock and government vets and the more numerous small animal vets, mostly female, having to cope with the pet owners.
There are some things you cannot get away with – and this is one of them. The British government vets must be desperate to try it. They are desperate: very desperate.
Full Daily Mail article here
MRSA superbugs found on pets
by TIM UTTON, Daily Mail
Superbug: the MRSA has been found on household pets
The deadly superbug sweeping hospitals has been found in British pets, experts have revealed.
Evidence that MRSA - which kills 5,000 patients a year - can cross the species barrier raises the prospect of animals infecting their owners - and vice versa.
The Health Protection Agency says it found the superbug in 12 pets after analysing samples from cats, dogs and a rabbit.
Angela Kearns, head of the agency's staphylococcus laboratory, said: 'We have observed MRSA in some domestic animals.
'The cases came from across Britain so we know it's not one particular cluster.
'We need to know if there is a lot of it out there and what the risks are. We don't know yet whether animals have acquired the infection from humans or vice versa.
'There really is a big question mark over the whole area.'
Hospitals are struggling to defeat MRSA - methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus - because it is resistant to penicillin...
...Britain has the worst MRSA record in Europe, according to official figures released a week ago.
Patients are 40 times more likely to catch it here than in Denmark or the Netherlands...
...Although it is the first time MRSA has been found in British animals, it has already been reported overseas.
Dr Donald Low, a microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, has found it in horses, cats, dogs and guinea pigs.
'This is a warning to Britain about MRSA,' he said. 'I've looked at the case of a horse, a thoroughbred, which ended up infecting its owner.'
Horses are particularly at risk, he said, because they are costly creatures and vets tend to use expensive antibiotics on them.
The British Veterinary Association urged pet owners not to panic and not to abandon their animals.
Dr Alistair Gibson, spokesman, said: 'We don't want to see a massive scare that will make people get rid of their pets...
