The Danes can look on the bright side, at least they recognise they have a problem.
Britain's veterinary establishment has hidden up the same problem for many years.
So, the senior government veterinarians running the shambles that is animal and related public health in Britain have to be called to account and removed from positions of responsibility quickly.
Be sure to read in full here, there is a timeline of the development of the growing scandal in Denmark.
MRSA experts: New course for pig infection must be followed
Food Minister's change of course in the fight against the spread of swine MRSA is welcomed by the country's experts in resistant bacteria. But the new measures must be followed by action, says experts.
By Helle Maigaard Erhardsen
Food Minister Dan Jorgensen during a visit to a pig in July. In late August, he put on a consultation for increased efforts to combat the spread of swine MRSA...
... But the new measures must be followed by action, says experts.
By Helle Maigaard Erhardsen September 7, 2014 at. 14:00
Ban visits to MRSA-infected pig farms, screening of all breeding herds and research to uncover the antibiotic-resistant stafylokokbakteries routes of transmission.
There were new tones from Health Minister Nick Hækkerup (S) and Food Minister Dan Jørgensen (S) August 27, when they were both summoned to consultation in parliament to explain the response to the increasing incidence of pig-MRSA in humans...
How come MRSA CC398 on the agenda...
...But it has a long way before the food minister's new approach will lead to a reduction of the widespread swine bacterial, says Hans Jørn Kolmos: "It is clearly a step that Dan Jørgensen now have realized that they must know the routes of infection, before anything can be done. But then they must also be prepared to act on the new knowledge that may
come, "he said.
Opens screening
Yvonne Agersø who is a senior researcher at DTU's Department of Epidemiology and genomic microbiology, food also welcome the Minister's new approach to combating welcome. She is one of the scientists who have recommended the screening of breeding herds, which is now being introduced:
"The problem is just not resolved by screening the 27 herds.So, we are investigating further down the production joints to find out whether the infection will continue, "says Yvonne Agersø.
Since she in 2012 became part of the Government working to combat MRSA, the changing food ministers refused to check and thereby eliminate or stop the bacteria were spread already in the first part of the pig production...
...But although the minister now opens the 27 barn doors in breeding herds for testing, he maintains still that only two percent of the remaining pig farms - some 200 crews - are going to have a sample. Another member of the MRSA Working Group, Jens Peter Nielsen,
Professor of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Copenhagen, also welcome his recommendation on screening of breeding herds are now being accepted.
Routes of infection must be investigated
The studies of bacterial infection routes, as the minister announced at the conciliation must also first organized by the National Veterinary Institute DTU, according to the Ministry of Food. At the consultation meeting said Dan Jørgensen, however, a number of areas that would be important to examine. It is, for example, how much bacteria is spread when animals are transported on manure and dust from the facility can transmit the infection and whether it matters if the farms are close or scattered.
These areas have all been unknown factors that the Food Ministry has referred to as a reason for not putting directly into the barns to fight infection among pigs before the bacteria are transmitted to humans...
...Prof. Dr. Hans Jørn Kolmos is surprised that the minister did not also proposes to examine the possibility of infection through pork. Food Administration, by 2011, examined the prevalence of bacteria in meat, but is otherwise not assume that pork poses a risk of infection, as all who eat it, otherwise they would be infected, says the rationale of the Board.
"The greater prevalence in meat, the greater will be the risk of infection. In 2011, 10 percent of Danish-produced pork contaminated with MRSA, but what is the situation today? "Hans Jørn Kolmos.
Another expert in resistant bacteria, a professor at DTU Food Frank Møller Aarestrup, has also sought clarification of pork infection risk. He, however, express concern about the research projects will be a way to postpone action on.
'If it just ends up in research without any real attempt at reducing the infection will not improve health,' he wrote in an email to the engineer.
