1. mikethemadbiologist
  2. MRSA ST398: Now It's in Chickens

MRSA ST398: Now It's in Chickens

By mikethemadbiologist on January 13, 2009.

The emerging MRSA strain ST398 has found a new home--chickens.

MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) was first found to have swept through European swine herds from 2003-2006. Then it entered the hospital system.

In the U.S., it had not been observed in agriculture until very recently (it's ScienceBlogling Tara's fault--on a serious note, she studies this critter). It hasn't been seen in hospitals in the U.S. yet.

What's disturbing is that a recent study from Belgium indicates that MRSA is on the rise in chickens and that it's due to ST398 (this isn't a trivial thing; most countries have more chickens than people).

So we now know that ST398 can successfully live in poultry. I had hoped that, in the U.S., we could contain this strain, but now, I'm not so optimistic.

Cited article: Nemati et al. 2008. Antimicrobial resistance of old and recent Staphylococcus aureus isolates from poultry: first detection of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant strain ST398. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 52: 3817-9.

Tags
agriculture
antibiotics
microbiology
MRSA
We're Really Fucked

More like this

MRSA ST398: It's All Tara's Fault...
I'm kidding, but ScienceBlogling Tara Smith has co-authored a PLoS One article about the emergence of the MRSA strain ST398 in Iowan pork farms. Pig farms are a tremendous reservoir of bacteria: as far as I can tell, there are about six pigs for every person in Iowa. MRSA ST398 a methicillin…
Swine and MRSA
The peanut butter/peanut paste ingredient based salmonella outbreak has been in the news lately and we've discussed it here (and here, here, here, here, here). There are now about 500 reported cases and six deaths. That's a case fatality ratio of just over 1%. So what if there were a disease…
Swine and MRSA
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure The peanut butter/peanut paste ingredient based salmonella outbreak has been in the news lately and we've discussed it here (and here, here, here, here, here). There are now about 500 reported cases and six deaths. That's a case fatality ratio of just over…
MRSA found in Iowa meat
I've blogged previously on a few U.S. studies which investigated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in raw meat products (including chicken, beef, turkey, and pork). This isn't just a casual observation as one who eats food--I follow this area closely as we also have done our own pair of…