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 pork, 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 imported 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 important, 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 important 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 imported 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 opportunity 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 important' 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 report [PDF, 548 KB]
» Read the full report [PDF, 1.5 MB]
Notes to Editors
1. MRSA in farm animals and meat, A new threat to human health, report 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 proportion 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 report)
4. Although the UK imports no live pigs from the Netherlands, Denmark or Germany where farm-animal MRSA has been confirmed, we do import live chicks and turkey poults from several countries including the Netherlands. Also, 60% of the pork we consume is imported. 87% of imported bacon comes from the Netherlands or Denmark. 63% of imported pork and 57% of imported 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 assessment he has made of the presence of MRSA in pigs in the UK and in imported pork'. 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. Antibioticarapportage 2005, opgested door de FIDIN Werkgroep Antibioticumbeleid, 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--important emerging veterinary and zoonotic diseases, Veterinary Journal, 169: 315-316
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