Meet your Meat: MRSA in farm animals – ‘A new monster’ - coming to the UK soon? Is it already too late!

MRSA in farm animals – ‘A new monster’ - coming to the UK soon?  
PRESS RELEASE

Research published today (25/6/07) by the Soil Association reveals
that a serious human-health threat already present in the Netherlands
and other European countries, could spread to the UK. [1] 

The 'superbug' methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is
already a high-profile, persistent problem in many UK hospitals. Now a
new strain of MRSA has developed amongst intensively farmed pigs,
chickens and other livestock on the Continent. Farm-animal MRSA has
already transferred to farmers, farm-workers and their families in the
Netherlands, causing serious health impacts. 40% of Dutch pigs and 50%
of pig farmers have been found to carry farm-animal MRSA. [2]

In the Netherlands, farm-animal MRSA has been found in 20% of ****k,
21% of chicken and 3% of beef on sale to the public. [3] It has not
yet been found in UK livestock or meat products, but neither the
government nor the Food Standards Agency are carrying out any surveys
of the most likely carriers, live pigs, chickens and im****ted meat.
[4] Replying to a Parliamentary Question on this issue, the minister
responsible, Ben Bradshaw, dismissed the Soil Association's concerns,
'…there is no current evidence that food-producing animals form a
reservoir of MRSA infection in the UK…'. [5]

The Dutch Minister for Agriculture, Dr C. P. Veerman thinks
differently, 
'It is very unlikely that 'animal-farming-related MRSA' only exists in
the Netherlands, considering the animal types where MRSA is found and
the many animal movements and comparable livestock farming methods in
other EU member states. So far, there are no hard facts about this. It
is im****tant, for these reasons, that all Member States examine their
animals.' [3]

Dutch scientists and government officials blame this new strain of
MRSA in farm animals on the high levels of antibiotics used in
intensive livestock farming. [6] The UK government has committed
itself to reducing the amount of antibiotics used in UK farming, yet
overall levels remain high. Despite an EU-wide ban on growth-promoting
antibiotics added to animal feed, similar quantities of antibiotics
are simply being prescribed by vets for disease prevention. [7]
Additionally, the junior Minister, Ben Bradshaw MP, gave in to
lobbying by the farm-drugs industry to allow continued advertising of
prescription-only antibiotics to livestock farmers in defiance of an
EU Directive seeking to end this practice. Now these im****tant
antibiotics are even being marketed for their growth-promoting
properties. [8]

Richard Young, Soil Association policy adviser said,
'This new type of MRSA is spreading like wildfire across Europe, and
we know it is transferring from farm animals to humans – with serious
health impacts. Concerned scientists have referred to this as 'a new
monster'. [9] Fortunately, it has not yet been found in UK livestock
or im****ted meat, but then neither the government nor the Food
Standards Agency are looking for it in live animals or meat. 

This is no time for official complacency, but a critical op****tunity
to prevent farm-animal MRSA getting a hold in the UK - so reducing
risks to human health, costs to the NHS, already burdened by
hospital-acquired MRSA, and avoiding another potentially devastating
food-safety crisis.'

The Soil Association is calling on the government to: 
Urgently instigate a testing programme to establish the MRSA status of
UK livestock and meat on sale; 
Fully implement its claimed commitment to reducing use of veterinary
antibiotics – including banning advertising of all antibiotics to
farmers; 
Immediately prohibit the prophylactic and off-label use of all
antibiotics on farms that are defined as 'critically im****tant' in
human medicine by the World Health Organisation; 
Screen all farm workers and vets coming into the UK from countries
where farm-animal MRSA has been found.
» Read a summary of the re****t [PDF, 548 KB]
» Read the full re****t [PDF, 1.5 MB]


Notes to Editors
1. MRSA in farm animals and meat, A new threat to human health, re****t
five in the series 'The use and misuse of antibiotics in UK
agriculture'. Soil Association, June 2007 Cóilín Nunan and Richard
Young Price £12 or free electronic copy from website ISBN 1 904665 21
7

2. Farm-animal MRSA was first identified in the Netherlands in July
2004. During routine screening, scientists found the bacteria on a
six-month-old baby girl admitted for surgery to a hospital in
Nijmegen. For several months the girl remained colonised by MRSA
despite repeated attempts to clear the bacteria. Tests revealed her
parents were also positive for MRSA. The family lived on a farm, and
raised pigs (Voss et al. 2005). This finding prompted further, more
extensive studies. Latest Dutch figures indicate 40% of pigs, 13% of
calves and a high pro****tion of chickens carry MRSA. 50% of Dutch pig
farmers also now carry MRSA. All people living on pig and cattle farms
are now considered to be at high risk of being MRSA carriers and are
isolated on admission to hospital.

Dutch patients with farm-animal MRSA have developed skin infections,
endocarditis (a heart infection) and osteomyelitis (a bone infection).
The same strain of MRSA has caused blood poisoning and other
deep-seated infections in Belgium and it has caused infections in
Denmark. In Germany, this MRSA strain has also caused pneumonia in
seven inpatients.

3. Letter from Dr C. P. Veerman to Dutch Parliament, 18 December 2006
(translation provided as an Appendix to re****t)

4. Although the UK im****ts no live pigs from the Netherlands, Denmark
or Germany where farm-animal MRSA has been confirmed, we do im****t
live chicks and turkey poults from several countries including the
Netherlands. Also, 60% of the ****k we consume is im****ted. 87% of
im****ted bacon comes from the Netherlands or Denmark. 63% of im****ted
****k and 57% of im****ted processed pig meat comes from Denmark, the
Netherlands or Germany.

5. In December 2006, the Conservative frontbench spokesman, "Laurence
Robertson MP asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs, 'what *****sment he has made of the presence of MRSA in
pigs in the UK and in im****ted ****k'. The junior environment Minister,
Ben Bradshaw MP replied that the Government had set up an MRSA
sub-group 'in response to increased interest in this area' and was
testing milk for the presence of MRSA, but said it was not testing
pigs because it 'is not generally considered to be a major pathogen of
livestock species other than cattle' (Hansard 2006).

6. In human medicine, Dutch antibiotic use is the lowest in Western
Europe, at least for outpatients (Ferech et al. 2006). However, total
farm antibiotic use in 2004 was 508 tonnes of active ingredient
(exclusive of growth-promoter use and the use of antibiotics to
control the disease coccidiosis) (FIDIN 2006). This compares with 446
tonnes in UK agriculture in 2005. While the Netherlands has over twice
as many pigs as the UK, it has little more than half the number of
chickens, around a quarter of the number of cattle and nearly 30 times
fewer sheep (MARAN 2005, Goodyear 2006). Dutch veterinary antibiotic
sales statistics show that consumption of antibiotics has been on an
upward trend since 1998, and increased by 29% between 2003 and 2005.

7. Veterinary use of antibiotics used for therapy or disease
prevention in UK food animals has increased by 3.5%, from 405 tonnes
in 1999 to 419 tonnes in 2005, despite a fall in overall livestock
numbers. In the UK, over 90% of veterinary antibiotics are used in pig
or poultry production (Goodyear 2006).

8. EU Directive 2004/28/EC, required member states to ban the
advertising of prescription-only medicines to 'members of the general
public', bringing veterinary medicines into line with human medicines.
Advertising to farmers could no longer be permitted and the Directive
only made exceptions to the prohibition for veterinary surgeons and
pharmacists. The National Office of Animal Health (NOAH), the body
which represents the pharmaceutical industry, strongly lobbied against
this and succeeded in getting these advertising restrictions dropped.

9. British scientist, Dr Andrew Waller called MRSA in farm animals and
pets 'the creation of a new monster'. (Waller 2005)

References

Ferech M., Coenen S., Malhotra-Kumar S., Dvorakova K., Hendrickx E.,
Suetens C. and Goossens H. on behalf of the ESAC Project Group, 2006.
European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption (ESAC): outpatient
antibiotic use in Europe, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 58:
401-407

FIDIN, 2006. Antibioticarap****tage 2005, opgested door de FIDIN
Werkgroep Antibioti***beleid, August 2006, Den Haag

Goodyear K., 2006. Sales of antimicrobial products authorized for use
as veterinary medicines, antiprotozoals, antifungals, growth promoters
and coccidiostats, in the UK 2005, Veterinary Medicines Directorate

Hansard, 2006. Pig industry, written answers to questions 18 December
2006,
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm061218/text/61218w0002.htm

MARAN, 2005. MARAN 2004 – Monitoring of antimicrobial resistance and
antibiotic usage in animals in the Netherlands in 2004

Voss A., Loeffen F., Bakker J., Klaassen C. and Wulf M., 2005.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in pig farming, Emerging
Infectious Diseases, 11: 1965-1966

Waller A., 2005. The creation of a new monster: MRSA and
MRSI--im****tant emerging veterinary and zoonotic diseases, Veterinary
Journal, 169: 315-316

Do***ent information:

Title: MRSA in farm animals – ‘A new monster’ - coming to the UK
soon?

Version: 1 

Last updated: 25/06/2007

Categories:
Animal health, Antibiotics, Health, Press Releases 2007 

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