MRSA: How the FDA is Dealing With It

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An effective way to say there isn’t a problem is never to look. That seems to be precisely what most U.S, government food-safety agencies are doing when it comes to determining whether the livestock in our food supply is contaminated with MRSA and if so whether the often-fatal bacterium is being passed on to consumers who buy and consume that meat.

We know that some strains of MRSA – methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – are extremely dangerous. Dr. Monina Klevens, of the federal Center for Disease control and Prevention, examined the case of the disease reported in hospitals, schools, and prisons in one year and extrapolated that “ 94,360 invasive MRSA infection occurred in the United States in 2005; these infections were associated with death in 18,650 cases.”

“We’ve proven MRSA is in pigs and the marketed pork in Canada, and we know that it’s also in U.S. pigs. It’s inconceivable that it wouldn’t also be found in the pork products from those pigs. Any pathogen or hazard that’s transmitted through the foods we regulate is a potential issue for us.” He added, “There is no indication MRSA has been identified in swine going into the retail market. Not in this country.”

Do we have MRSA in our American grown pigs? The Food and Drug Administration say it doesn’t know. Mike Herndon, an agency spokesman, said FDA scientists have been “following the emergence of MRSA from humans and animals in Central Europe and Canada and are monitoring the situation very closely.”

The FDA is aware of Weese’s study, but “we do not yet have similar data with regard to the MRSA sitiation among food animals and retial meats,” Herndon said. There is no indication that FDA has tested meat for MRSA.

But the FDA and USDA eagerly pointed to a group called the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System as the protector of food and humans from foodborne bacteria. The coalition of scientists from several federal agencies primarily target salmonella, campylobacter and E. coli. But the group does not currently screen for MRSA.

Interestingly, the pork lobbyist have said their industry would oppose any attempt to test all livestock for MRSA, calling the testing “unnecessary to protect public health.”

Whereas our government apparently doesn’t see the need nor have the ability to see if pigs in the U.S. are carrying MRSA, Tara Smith, an assistant professor for the University of Iowa department of epidemiology, and her graduate researchers have done what is apparently is the first test of swine for MRSA in the U.S.

At the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, Abby Harper, one of Smith graduate assistant, presented the result of a study that she and Michael Male did on 20 workers at the Iowa swine farms. Harper reported that 45 percent of the workers carried the same MRSA bacterium as the pigs. Smith and her assistants plan to do extensive testing on swine farms. “We will be paying special attention to the antibiotics that are being used because there are indications that the tetracycline used in swine farming may be the cause of the spread of MESA,” she explained.

All of Smith important work raises the question that Weese raised in Canada: Is MESA- contaminated meat being sold in the U.S. market?

It is believed that proper cooking will kill the MRSA bacterium. The health for butchers and cooks alike, if there is one, will come from improperly handled meat. “If people wash their hands after handling raw pork and prevent cross-contamination, risks should be very low,” Weese said from Canada “The main possible concern is that people sould get MRSA on their hands from raw pork, then touch their nose. The nose is the prime site for MRSA to live,” he told me.

Some public-health expert worry that butchers and professional and home cooks may be infected if MRSA bacteria on their hands a cut or a wound.

An understanding of the risk from MRSA in meat become more urgent in view of a report from the United Kingdom. Scientists reported that three patients in separate hospitals in Scotland were infected with the ST398 strain of MRSA, the same strain that Smith and her researchers found in Midwest farms. And it’s the same strain that FDA’s Herndon says is of particular concert in the veterinary medicine and food safety arenas. What makes this particularly important is that doctors reported that none of the patients worked on a farm nor had a close association with farm animals, raising the possibility that the superbug has entered the food chain in the U.K., according to a article by Martin Hickman in The Independent, a U.K. publication.

And as you mull this over, be advise that Weese warns that MRSA could also be in beef, chicken and lamb, but no one is checking.

Information source: Info compiled from article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/08

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