Research by the Soil Association reveals that a serious health threat already present in the Netherlands and other European countries, could spread to the UK. A new strain of MRSA has developed amongst intensively farmed animal on the continent, which has already transferred to farmers and their families in the Netherlands.
Richard Young, Soil Association policy adviser said: “This new type of MRSA is spreading like wildfire. This is no time for official complacency, but a critical opportunity to prevent farm-animal MRSA getting a hold in the UK – so reducing risks to human health, costs to the NHS, already burdened by hospital-acquired MRSA, and avoiding another food-safety crisis.”
The association is calling on the government to instigate a testing programme, fully implement its claimed commitment to reducing the use of veterinary antibiotics, and screen all farm workers and vets coming into the UK from countries where farm-animal MRSA has been found.
