Meat & MRSA

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*First study finds MRSA in U.S. pigs

source: Union of Concerned Scientists

 

*Scientists from the University of Iowa have conducted the first test of

U.S. swine for methicillin-resistant /Staphylococcus aureus/ (MRSA), the

bacterium responsible for more U.S. deaths than AIDS. Of the 200 pigs

the team tested, 70 percent carried a strain of MRSA, ST398, that

is known to affect humans. The scientists found that almost half of 20

workers on local pig farms carried the same strain of MRSA, suggesting a

route to the wider community. So far no one has tested MRSA patients in

U.S. hospitals to identify whether they carry the strain. The federal

government is testing meat (but not livestock) for MRSA, but hasn't

released its results. In the United Kingdom, at least three people are

known to have contracted the ST398 strain

<http://ucsaction.org/ct/dpLkf3M164by/>, and experts are speculating

that they probably contracted it from handling or eating meat. Read more

from the /Seattle Post Intelligencer/

<http://ucsaction.org/ct/d7Lkf3M164bU/>.