title: A study of the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in pigs and in personnel involved in the pig industry in Ireland.
abstract: To evaluate the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the pig population in Ireland, nasal swabbing was employed in three abattoirs to screen 440 pigs from 41 geographically distributed farms. One hundred individuals involved in the pig industry were also nasally screened. No MRSA isolates were recovered from the pigs and only two of the humans tested were identified as MRSA carriers. Importantly, MRSA was not obtained from pig producers, veterinarians or abattoir employees, but was isolated from individuals working in the wider pig industry. Multi-locus sequence typing revealed that these isolates belonged to sequence types (ST) ST22 and ST1307; the latter is a previously unreported single locus variant of ST5. Five dust samples from each of the three slaughterhouses were culture-negative for MRSA. These results indicate that porcine colonisation by MRSA, and in particular the animal-related strain MRSA-ST398, was not common in Ireland during the period of study.
authors.affiliation: Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland; Department of Microbiology, University College Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horgan
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology, University College Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Abbott
authors.affiliation: Teagasc, Pig Development Unit, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: Peadar G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Lawlor
authors.affiliation: National MRSA Reference Laboratory, St. James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rossney
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland.
authors.forename: Aidan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coffey
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University College Cork, Ireland; Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: Gerald F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.affiliation: Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland. Electronic address: olivia.mcauliffe@teagasc.ie.
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: McAuliffe
authors.affiliation: Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland; Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paul Ross
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000662:veterinary; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland / Q000453:epidemiology; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing / Q000662:veterinary; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D015995:Prevalence; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary; D013552:Swine / Q000382:microbiology*; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology