As we have discussed here on REALfarmacy, one of the many negative consequences of factory farming is the heavy use of antibiotics to treat pathogens resulting from the dense concentrations of livestock. A whopping 70% of antibiotics used in the U.S. are administered to healthy animals in factory farms. This practice produces resistant strains of Salmonella and E. coli which require ever stronger and more copious doses of antibiotics.

Now there is further evidence that factory farms are a major cause of the MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) epidemic. MRSA is a staph bacterium that is very difficult to treat and results in 19,000 deaths per year in the U.S.

A new study published in the journal PLOS One, led by scientists from Johns Hopkins, the University of North Carolina, and George Washington University, looked at different types of farmers for the presence of newer strains of infectious bacteria. They found that staph bacteria, including MRSA, were twice as prevalent in the noses of industrial farm workers compared to farmers from antibiotic-free operations. One type of resistant strain was 19 times more prevalent in industrial farm workers.

This adds to the growing body of evidence that factory farms are linked to the rise of community-associated MRSA epidemics. Healthcare-associated infections (originating in hospitals) are also a major factor in MRSA deaths, but the Center for Disease Control reports that while invasive MRSA infections are declining in the healthcare setting, “MRSA in the community (people without recent close contact with the healthcare system)…increased rapidly during the past decade and there is little evidence that the risk of developing community MRSA is following the same downward trend as healthcare-associated infections.”

As far back as 1977 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated that routinely feeding healthy farm animals low doses of antibiotics could promote hard-to-kill, antibiotic-resistant germs that could infect humans. However, the FDA has done virtually nothing about it, despite a court order to stop the authorization of unnecessary antibiotics from livestock production.

The MRSA problem is also turning up on the shelves of grocery stores. A 2011 study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that half of the U.S. supermarket meat sampled contained staph infection bacteria, including the hard-to-kill and potentially lethal MRSA, with turkey products being most likely to harbor staph bacteria, followed by pork and chicken. Cutting your hand while preparing these products can open a pathway for MRSA to enter and do its deadly work.

We cannot rely on federal agencies to protect us from this threat, as they are firmly in the pockets of agribusiness giants that are giving us cheap food at the cost of deteriorating public health and environmental degradation. We must reduce our dependency on this pharmaceutical-backed meat system by buying from local farmers and buying foods labeled Organic, Certified Humane, or Animal Welfare Approved.

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