The Soil Association has warned about the threat of a new strain of the MRSA superbug spreading to the UK through infected meat from the Continent.
The organic certification body claims farm-animal MRSA has been found in 20% of pork, 21% of chicken and 3% of beef on sale in the Netherlands. It has not yet been found in UK livestock or meat products, but neither the government, nor the Food Standards Agency is carrying out any surveys of the most likely carriers, the Soil Association claims.
Responding to a parliamentary question on the issue, environment minister Ben Bradshaw said: “There is no current evidence that food producing animals form a reservoir of MRSA infection in the UK.”
However, Dutch minister of agriculture Cees Veerman has warned: “It is very unlikely that ‘animal-farming-related MRSA’ only exists in the Netherlands, considering the animal types where MRSA is found and the many animal movements and comparable livestock farming methods in other EU member states. So far, there are no hard facts about this. It is important, for these reasons, that all Member States examine their animals.”
Dutch scientists and government officials blame the development of the new MRSA strain on the high levels of antibiotics used in intensive livestock farming.
“This new type of MRSA is spreading like wildfire across Europe, and we know it is transferring from farm animals to humans, with serious health impacts,” said Richard Young, Soil Association policy adviser. “Concerned scientists have referred to this as ‘a new monster’.”