Moreover, some meats infected with these bacteria were discovered in slaughterhouses in the Netherlands. Nearly half of pig farms were found carrying the bacteria. Given this grim situation, the organization believes that a large number of meat products in British supermarkets, that have been imported from the Netherlands, such as pork, beef and chicken, may have been infected with the "super bacteria" MRSA. Therefore it has urged the British government to quarantine the country's imported meat products.

Bacteria variants blustering in the Netherlands

MRSA is an abbreviation for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aaureus. Since it was first discovered in 1961, MRSA became one of the most highly infectious pathogens within hospitals in the world in late 1980s. In 2005 alone, 3,800 people died from an MRSA infection in Britain. According to the "Soil Association," MRSA found in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Germany is different from the one found in the United Kingdom. It is a new form of Staphylococcus aureus, known as ST398. It has developed a resistance commonly used antibiotics. ST398 can cause skin infections, as well as infect the heart and bones.

The report said that about 39% of the pigs under inspection, in nine slaughterhouses in the Netherlands last year, tested positive for MRSA while in quarantine. The department responsible for food safety and production in the Netherlands has discovered in further tests that about 20% of pork, 21% of chicken, and 3% of beef products are carrying the bacteria. The Netherlands is a major exporter of animal products; it exports more than six million pigs annually to neighboring countries. What is of greater concern is that in the Netherlands, almost half of the pig farms were found to be carrying this new type of MRSA. The bacteria-carrying rate is 1500 times of that of the total population of the country. In this major pig-raising region, 80% of infections originated from livestock carrying the bacteria.

Source: People's Daily Online

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