Health News
Tests find killer MRSA bug common in German piggeries
May 5, 2008, 15:03 GMT
Bonn, Germany - Killer staphylococcus germs which defy antibiotics and which are rampant in some hospitals are also widespread on German farm pigs, health officials said Monday.
Spot tests were ordered after last year's revelation that the germs are widespread in Dutch piggeries.
Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was found in 28 out of 40 of the pig farms checked in North Rhine Westphalia state, the state farm services bureau in Bonn said.
The infected animals were otherwise healthy.
German federal health officials say consumers should cook cuts of pork all the way through to avoid infection.
MRSA, a serious problem in the world's hospitals, was first detected in animals in 1972.
A documentary on MRSA, to be aired this Saturday on ARD public TV in Germany, says 35,000 patients catch MRSA every year in German hospitals and it is estimated 1,500 die of it.
Ordinary staphylococcus is found on most people's skin and usually only causes sores and other illnesses when immunity is low.
The documentary said 39 of 122 farm workers in one sample had caught the resistant form, possibly from the pigs.
Methicillin resistance arises when some of the toughest bacteria survive courses of antibiotics administered to humans or animals.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Check out www.mercyforanimals.com if you still are not convinced that it is wrong to eat animals.
We use rats and mice in labs because they are like us, their brains are like ours, they develop similarly, and they have the same emotions and emotional problems, like depression and anxiety.
And then we lock them up on farms, abuse them, cram them into small spaces, let them have open sores that never get medical attention, and live in their own excrement and in pain.
Connect the dots people.
They do feel pain and they do suffer and eating meat just causes unnecessary suffering.
page: 1
Pat GardinerMay 5th, 2008 - 21:33:45
Britain's Defra vets have refused to test Britain's pigs and the Food Standards Agency, the pork, for MRSA.
It has long been suspected that pigs and pork are a major source of MRSA in Britain.
Many countries test pig and pork workers for MRSA at the hospital door. Not Britain, our government vets will not admit a problem.
Regards
Pat Gardiner
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