|
Study supports antibiotic use-resistance theory
Story Date: 2/24/2012
| |
Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 2/23/12
A new study concluding that a strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) might have originated in humans before building up resistance to antibiotics in livestock supports the argument against overuse of antibiotics in livestock.
Published Tuesday in the online journal mBio, the study zeroes in on MRSA CC398 and suggests it likely orginated as a non-resistant strain in humans before it jumped to food animals, built up resistance to antibiotics important to the treatment of Staph infections and then jumped back to humans.
Scientists led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), a Phoenix-based nonprofit, used whole genome sequencing to detail the history of MRSA CC398. Researchers at 20 institutes collaborated to study 89 genomes from humans and animals spanning 19 countries and four continents, TGen said in a news release.
“Our results strongly suggest that food animals-associated MRSA CC398 originaed in humans as MSSA (methicillin-susceptible S. aureus),” the study concludes, noting that the microbe became resistant to tetracycline and then methicillin likely as a result of routine antibiotic use “that characterizes modern food-animal production.”
The CC398 strain is often called “pig-MRSA” or “livestock-associated MRSA” because it most often infects people with direct exposure to swine or other food animals.
“Our findings underscore the potential public health risks of widespread antibiotic use in food animal production,” Dr. Lance Price, the study’s lead author and director of TGen’s Center for Food Microbiology and Environmental Health, said in the release. “ Staph thrives in crowded and unsanitary conditions. Add antibiotics to that environment and you’re going to create a public health problem.”
For more stories, go to http://www.meatingplace.com/.
|
|
|
|
