Pat's Note:

"The detection of a large MRSA reservoir in pigs and the finding that
professionally exposed individuals are colonised…"

Underlines the fact that Britain's hospital screening programme was
flawed. The vets did not want to be identified as carriers and put the
rest of us at risk.

Now this sub-profession has to pay the bill - and it will be massive.
Eye-watering, in fact.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?term=19880619&db=pubmed

Eur Respir J. 2009 Nov;34(5):1190-6.
What is MRSA?

Pantosti A, Venditti M.
Dept of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-mediated Diseases, Istituto
Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, Rome 00161, Italy.
annalisa.pantosti@iss.it

For decades methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has
been considered the prototype of multi-resistant nosocomial pathogens,
causing infections in high-risk patients. Changes in the healthcare
system, coupled with the evolution of this versatile microorganism,
have transformed MRSA into a cause of community-onset infections, in
both patients who have contact with the healthcare system and patients
without such a risk factor. New lineages of MRSA, defined as community
acquired (CA)-MRSA, have emerged that have a propensity to cause
infections in young individuals without risk factors. CA-MRSA
primarily causes skin infections and, rarely, necrotising pneumonia.
In the USA, these strains belong to a single widespread clone,
designated USA300, while in Europe they belong to a variety of clones.
Most strains carry genes for the Panton-Valentine leukocidin, whose
role in diseases is under debate. In subjects living in the community
who have contact with the healthcare system, MRSA strains of the
nosocomial type are a frequent cause of infection and of pneumonia in
particular. The detection of a large MRSA reservoir in pigs and the
finding that professionally exposed individuals are colonised, has
further shown that it is necessary to closely follow the epidemiology
of MRSA if we want to combat it effectively.
PMID: 19880619 [PubMed - in process]

-- 
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com  and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/