NEW DEADLY FARM MRSA BUG FOUND IN HOSPITALS


BAD BACON: The MRSA found in Dutch pigs has infected farmers and others

A DEADLY new form of MRSA is believed to be spreading from farm animals to humans – already the bacteria has been found in hospitals abroad.

It is the first time the bug has spread in this way and experts believe excessive use of antibiotics in factory-farmed animals may be behind its development.

“Farm animal” MRSA, as it is known, can cause a raft of illnesses including skin infections, pneumonia, bone infections and endocarditis.

The revelation raises fears about viruses and bugs moving from animals to humans in the way that Avian flu infected humans from poultry.

The new MRSA bug, known as ST398, could reach hospitals in the UK, causing serious illness and death among vulnerable patients.

The bug is not only in the animals but also in slaughtered meat. Scientists believe one way it could get into the UK is through contact with raw meat during food preparation.

ST398 was discovered in Holland when factory-farmed pigs passed it onto pig farmers. Now Government experts are carrying out tests to see if ST398 is in the UK’s pig population.

Doctors in Holland also found it had spread to patients who had no contact with pig farming or farmers. In one area of Holland 60 per cent of all MRSA cases are testing positive for the new strain.

Although ST398 has only recently been discovered it now causes almost one in three cases of MRSA treated in Dutch hospitals.?Cases?of?animal-to-human transmission have been found throughout Europe. And scientists have discovered the bug in other animals including beef cattle and factory-farmed chickens.

There are fears the bug may have already infected people in the UK although so far there have been no reports of it in UK hospitals.

Approximately 60 per cent of the pig meat eaten in the UK comes from the Netherlands and other countries. A Dutch Government study has found that about 10 per cent of slaughtered Dutch pork is contaminated with MRSA.

Sunday March 29,2009
By Lucy Johnston and Martyn Halle

Source: Daily Express

1 thought on “NEW DEADLY FARM MRSA BUG FOUND IN HOSPITALS”

  1. Actually the report is wrong. ST398 has been found in patients in a Scottish hospital last year and was widely reported although some of the details seem to be withheld.

    The British government has tested the pigs under order for the EU, but is refusing to release the results.

    This is a real life “can of worms” – a real cover-up of serious crime and risk to humans.

    I have spent almost decade on this disaster, day after day: there at the beginning, with pigs and in pig country when the horror story started.

    We decided on a self-sufficient lifestyle and walked into a nightmare.

    There is little doubt that MRSA in pigs has been leaking into the hospitals for some years.

    There was a nasty mutation to a porcine circovirus in Britain in 1999 which caused an epidemic that required huge quantities of antibiotics to handle the consequences.

    MRSA in pigs was the result, usually the ST398 strain.

    The Dutch picked up the problem about four years ago and commendably make everything they knew public.

    Both circovirus and MRSA epidemics have now travelled the world along with accompanying cover-ups. It is quite a nasty situation – now coming to light in the USA.

    MRSA st398, mutated circovirus and various other unpleasant zoonotic diseases have now reached American pig farms.

    The people exposing the scandal in the US are to be commended.

    I have extensive records available to anyone researching the link and can often answer general questions quickly and accurately.


    Regards
    Pat Gardiner
    Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
    http://www.go-self-sufficient.com and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com

    Reply

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