Livestock associated MRSA detected in GB piglets
The isolation of LA-MRSA in piglets in Great Britain was announced in the publication Veterinary Record earlier this month, and follows reports in July last year that the bacteria had been found at a farm in Northern Ireland.
Two 10-day old piglets from a breeder-finisher farm in England were found to have skin lesions, and were submitted to an Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) veterinary investigation centre on 30 December 2014. “Eleven litters were affected and, of 60 piglets with the condition, six died,” according to report authors: Simon Hall, Angela Kearns and Suzanne Eckford.
The British Veterinary Association and Pig Veterinary Society issued a joint statement on the discovery.
It said that while there was no official requirement to test for MRSA, the UK pig industry “is actively promoting testing of live pig imports or the herds from which they derive”.
“However, with the movement of different livestock species and humans between the UK and countries with high prevalence of LA-MRSA, it is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, to have detected LA-MRSA in pigs in England,” it continued.
“Some media reports have speculated on the infectivity of the organism. An opportunist infection of the skin or other sites in MSRA-colonised animals is a recognised occurrence and does not, in itself, imply that LA-MRSA has greater infectivity.”
The associations added that while antimicrobial use has played a role in the emergence of MRSA “its subsequent spread relates mainly to it being a successful bacterial species, not to antimicrobial use”. They said: “LA-MRSA has been found in animals in which no antimicrobials have been used.”
