"Is Drug-Resistant Staph A Work Hazard for Farm Workers?"

A new study suggests that farm workers who work with hogs are much more likely to be carrying certain strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

"A new study by the researcher who has done the most to pin down the presence of “pig MRSA” in the United States pries open the relationship between raising animals for food and risking drug-resistant infections—while also demonstrating how frustratingly difficult it is to fill all the data gaps around that risk.

The study is by Tara Smith, who is now an associate professor at Kent State and was previously faculty at thee University of Iowa College of Public Health, where she published the first paper identifying MRSA ST398, the hog-associated resistant strain; her former Iowa colleagues are co-authors. It’s the first study done in the US (and the largest ever) to prospectively track and sample hog farmers, and it maps the results against the locations of hog CAFOs—”confined animal feeding operations” holding thousands of animals—in the state which produces more US pigs than any other.

Quick version of their results: Compared to people with no current swine contact, people currently working with swine were 6 times more likely to be carrying some strain of drug-resistant staph, and 5.8 to 8.4 times more likely to be carrying strains that are specifically linked to hogs."

Maryn McKenna reports for National Geographic May 2, 2015.