MRSA. Staphylococcus aureus methicillin resistant
European studies about Staphylococcus aureus methicillin resistant (MRSA) in animals
Staphylococcus aureus is usually found on the skin and mucosa of domestic animals and humans. This microorganism causes mild infections or even severe ones, in addition to food borne disease through toxins.
Photo: Estefanía Rivero © VISAVET
Antibiotics are the treatment for S. aureus infections. Nevertheless, the bacteria are getting more resistant over time. Staphylococcus aureus resistant to methicillin (MRSA) is a public health concern given that they are resistant to all beta-lactam antibiotics, which are the selected treatments for these infections.
Hasman et al. (2009) have recently described that the bacteria is host specific since it is infrequent that strains from mammals colonize humans. However, several North-European countries detected MRSA infections related to swine farmers and their families. For this reason, S. aureus should be treated as an occupational disease.
Due to the job-related clinical cases described, the European Commission promoted a new prevalence study of MRSA in swine for all the Member States in the European Union (Commission Decision 2008/55/EC). In this study, breeding and selection holdings of pigs were randomly selected within each country. In Spain, 1,805 samples from 361 holdings were taken and tested in authorized laboratories.
The results showed a high level of MRSA detection in Spain in breeding and production holdings. Although, to our knowledge, the cases detected at hospitals in Spain are not related to food consumption or to close contact with animals. Establishing survey programs for food producing animals, food and humans will be necessary to better understand a potential cross-over between animals and humans and food contamination.
VISAVET Health Surveillance Centre
Complutense University
