Flies, already blamed for spreading disease, may help spread drug-resistant superbugs from chicken droppings, researchers reported on Monday.  They matched antibiotic-resistant enterococci and staphylococci bacteria from houseflies and the litter found in intensive poultry-farming barns in the Delmarva Peninsula region of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.  The findings, reported in the journal Science of the Total Environment, may help explain some of the spread of drug-resistant bacteria.

via Flies may be spreading MRSA from fowl feces – Infectious diseases- msnbc.com.

The susceptibilities of 12 antimicrobial agents for two collections of Staphylococcus aureus, isolated in the 1970s and in 2006 from poultry, were determined. For eight antibiotics, the percentage of resistance was significantly higher in the recent isolates. Ten recent isolates were methicillin resistant and had spa types t011 and t567, belonging to multilocus sequence type 398. This is the first report of “livestock-associated” methicillin resistant S. aureus from healthy poultry.

Nemati et al. 52 (10): 3817 — Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Very worrying sentence here – MRSA embedded in the processing chain – this also does not bode well for poultry workers who could become superspreaders

Suprisingly, most nt-MRSA is found in turkey and chicken (31 and 27% respectively). With live animals, the bacteria is only found in pigs and calves. “The figures also surprised me. My first thoughts were that it can be spread through processing,” according to MRSA-specialist, Arie van Nes, from the Faculty of Animal Health in Utrecht.

MRSA has not been found in live poultry yet. The animal health authority has confirmed that 50% of animals on pig farms are infected with the bacteria. As regards the level of infection on cattle farms, the figure is not yet known, but is under research.

Pig Progress | Pig News | 11% pork is contaminated with MRSA bacteria.