The scandal of MRSA in pigs and pig people rumbles on.
It is an expected consequence of industrial scale pig farming, but something often denied.
Full Medical Daily report here
Industrial Farm Workers Carry More Antibiotic-Resistant Staph Bacteria
Than Organic Farmers
Strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria could cause a wave of infections throughout the U.S. population. Before that happens, scientists are trying to find the path in which they travel, and they've zeroed in on industrial livestock farms.
BY ANTHONY RIVAS | JUL 02, 2013 11:00 PM EDT
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, particularly MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), have emerged in increasing numbers over the past few years. First seen in European farm settings, they then moved to communities and hospitals.
Scientists are now trying to find ways to prevent the same thing from happening in the U.S., where they are already found among farmers in livestock operations. According to a new study, the problem may lie in
their noses...
...Overall, both groups had similar amounts of normal Staph - the kind that can be eliminated with antibiotics - but they found that multidrug-resistant Staph (MDRSA) was present in 37 percent of industrial farm workers, compared to only 19 percent of the workers at the antibiotics-free farms. Additionally, they found that 56 percent of the industrial farm workers had tetracycline-resistant Staph bacteria, compared to only three percent of those at antibiotics-free farms. Tetracycline is an antibiotic frequently prescribed for
infections.
With strains of these bacteria already showing up in livestock workers in Iowa and North Carolina, scientists are concerned that the bacteria might spread in the same way it did in Europe...
