Drug dilemmas

With the long-awaited results of the EFSA breeding-herd survey on MRSA now available, it poses some real dilemmas for the European regulatory authorities, pharmaceutical industry and future pig industry. The survey showed that 12 of the 24 reporting EU countries had positive findings in the breeding herds of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), almost wholly the farm animal associated clone ST398 (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Percentage of breeding herds surveyed positive for MRSA.