Are you following the unfolding MRSA nightmare? Well, if you’re like Food Fighter Darin Bradley, and you enjoy tracking the apocalypse, this bud’s for you, baby.
This post is going to be just a barebones, talking points memo sort of post. Bullet points and links to get you up to speed in case you aren’t familiar with the issue. Because you should be.
MRSA
Definition: MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It’s an emergent (new) and potentially fatal bacteria for humans and apparently most livestock, though it was first associated with pigs. It is resistant to the main treatment for staph infection, methicillin, and other antibiotics.
How Did it Emerge? It is common practice on factory farms to dose livestock feed with antibiotics in order to prevent infections, or to treat a whole herd when a certain percentage of animals become ill. Using antibiotics in this manner is thought to have spurred the rapid evolution and emergence of MRSA. The Journal Of American Medicine advised anding the practice years ago.
The Danger? The prospect of MRSA entrenching itself in the meat supply is one, main danger, especially since the microbe appears to have evolved beyond the reach our current sophistication of antibiotics. Theoretically, it would be nearly impossible to treat or irradicate if it colonized the US meat supply without creating a whole new generation of antibiotics.
Another real danger is that neither meats nor animals are tested systematically for MRSA in the United States, from the available evidence (see timeline below), it would appear that MRSA is already entrenched in US pig farms.
A Very Brief Timeline
MRSA has been around for years, but it was only first isolated in 2004. Before this, the bug was considered a danger only in hospitals and nursing homes, and little thought has been given to its potential threat to livestock agriculture. Consequently, there is actually very little information on this microbe, because it has emerged and evolved so quickly.
* The Seatle Post-Intelligencer reported last year that a superbug had emerged on 70% of tested Midwest pork farms (this article is absolutely must reading). Note: Both humans and pigs tested positive for the bacteria in that study. (UPDATE: I previously reported that PI broke the story on MRSA’s emergence — it has come to my attention that this in not the case. – El Dragón).
*ST 398, a particularly potent strain of MRSA, was reported in the Netherlands last June, but had not yet been seen in the US. (Superbug).
* Jan 23, 2009 (last week): ST 398 is reported on US farms for the first time. ("To our knowledge, this is the first publication of this strain in the US.")
(Hats off to Maryn McKenna of Superbug and Tara C. Smith of Aetiology for supplying most of the above information.)
What Can We Do? Buy organic or direct from farmers who don’t use antibiotics preventatively. McKenna says that in a recent Dutch report, "Meat sold as ‘biologic’ – that’s ‘organic,’ in the US – had a much lower rate of contamination with ST 398." This is probably due to the fact that certified organic farmers don’t treat their herds with antibiotics prevantatively.
But please note, the report did not say that osampled organic meat was free of the microbe. Proper meat handling, washing hands, and proper disposal of meat are essential tasks in combatting this superbug.
If you want to follow the MRSA story, it looks like now is a very good time to jump in. I highly recommend reading McKenna’s blog regularly. This week, McKenna is reporting that ST 398 is not limited to pork — that turkey seems to be a preferred host as well.
Happy apocalyptic reading, Food Fighters.
