title: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: a food-borne pathogen?
abstract: Prior to the 1990s, most methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was hospital-associated (HA-MRSA); community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) then began to cause infections outside the health-care environment. The third significant emergence of MRSA has been in livestock animals [livestock-associated MRSA (LA-MRSA)]. The widespread and rapid growth in CA-MRSA and LA-MRSA has raised the question as to whether MRSA is indeed a food-borne pathogen. The observations on animal-to-animal and animal-to-human transfer of LA-MRSA have prompted research examining the origin of LA-MRSA and its capacity to cause zoonotic disease in humans. This review summarizes the current knowledge about MRSA from food-producing animals and foods with respect to the role of these organisms to act as food-borne pathogens and considers the available tools to track the spread of these organisms. It is clear that LA-MRSA and CA-MRSA and even HA-MRSA can be present in/on food intended for human consumption, but we conclude on the basis of the published literature that this does not equate to MRSA being considered a food-borne pathogen.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Farm Animal Genetics, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Neustadt-Mariensee, Germany. sarah.wendlandt@fli.bund.de stefan.schwarz@fli.bund.de.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wendlandt
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Silley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D007881:Legislation, Food; D058751:Livestock / Q000382:microbiology*; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000254:growth & development; D008892:Milk / Q000382:microbiology; D011200:Poultry; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000635:transmission* / Q000662:veterinary; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission