UK Milk Supply Contains New MRSA Strain

Tests on milk from several different farms across the U.K. have turned up evidence for a new strain of MRSA — bacteria which have evolved resistance to common antibiotics. As long as the milk is properly pasteurized, it poses no threat to consumers, but anyone working directly with the animals bears a small risk of infection. According to The Independent, "The disclosure comes amid growing concern over the use of modern antibiotics on British farms, driven by price pressure imposed by the big supermarket chains. Intensive farming with thousands of animals raised in cramped conditions means infections spread faster and the need for antibiotics is consequently greater. Three classes of antibiotics rated as 'critically important to human medicine' by the World Health Organization – cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones and macrolides – have increased in use in the animal population by eightfold in the last decade."

Comments

Nothing to worry about

[93 Escort Wagon]

They just need to be sure they regularly dose their cows with the right antibiotic...

Re:Nothing to worry about

[houghi]

So now we must read the article AND the summary?

Re:Nothing to worry about

[joocemann]

Stop using methicillin and the resistance will go away. Microbiology 101.

It takes less than 10 divisions for the microbe not producing resistance to take over since it has a fitness advantage of not needing to invest energy in resistance.

If they were to employ scientists not partially, but fully, in this issue, we would have it solved by now. The prblem is that the long term answers by scientists would reduce short term gains desired by business.

Alas, pursuit of capital over what is right will again shoot us in the foot. The market has no long term plans or goals. Regulation and intervention with science is the only way now.

Re:Nothing to worry about

[Daniel Dvorkin]

If they were to employ scientists not partially, but fully, in this issue, we would have it solved by now. The prblem is that the long term answers by scientists would reduce short term gains desired by business.

This.

I cringe every time I hear people accusing scientists of scaremongering for the money. The big money in all the controversial areas is on the anti-science side, without exception.

Re:Nothing to worry about

[ColdWetDog]

Settle down you two. You do realize that the term 'scientists' is broadly encompassing? People that work for the evil industry. People whose moral compass shines brightly through the evil fog of the world (that's IT, no more caffeine this morning).

They don't live under volcanoes and play with obese felines. Well, most of them anyway.

First of all, bacterial resistance genes turn out to me much more complex than previously thought. Many resistance genes have evolved on cassettes which have the ability to evolve irrespective of the host bacterial genome. So they are selected to hang around, even in the absence of the initial selection factor.

Further, these cassettes can be transmitted to OTHER bacteria even without antibiotic selection and annoyingly enough, tend to get lumped together into multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria. So, we've let the cat out of the bag - it was inevitable although we managed to make it a bigger problem faster than need be.

TL;DR antibiotic resistance is going to be around a long time whether or not we use the antibiotics. Scientists aren't all greedy douchebags. There are more things in heaven and earth, dear Slashdotters, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Re:Nothing to worry about

[joocemann]

They reject the casette when the selecting factor is removed. Fyi.

And this is how the world will end....

[NeutronCowboy]

With an ever increasing pressure to drop prices so that the numbers in the next quarter (or, for the long-term corporate leaders, next 2 years) are met. Screw the fact that we're raising a whole class of nasty bugs that will enable us to relive the glory of pre-penicillin times, when something as simple as a cut meant possible amputation of the affected limb.

Antibiotic resistance is probably one of the worst things we're facing down in the coming century or so, right next to AGC. Both have the ability to have a tremendous negative impact on our lives, and both are a long time off - in other words, they are things no politician or corporate owner will want to touch while they're still working.

Re:And this is how the world will end....

[NeutronCowboy]

Even if we assume that the market forces are able to work in Adam Smith's idealized way, market forces have to obey the laws of physics. Math is also a bitch to work around.

In other words, the free market is not a silver bullet even in the best-case scenario. In the worst-case scenario, it is a botched free market that will prevent us from finding a workable solution. And we are far closer to a botched free market than a perfect free market. Draw your own conclusions.

Growth promotors

[benjfowler]

Big agribusiness preemptively pumping their animals full of antibiotics to kill off their gut flora as "growth promotors", which packing them in like sardines, to make a quick buck -- a hack to make the animals bigger and more productive, but also to compensate for the filth and squalor the beknighted creatures are kept in...

What could _possibly_ go wrong?

Re:Growth promotors

[na1led]

If we all stopped eating meat. We all would be much healthier, have lots more food for everyone, and population would increase another 3x because of it.

Re:Growth promotors

[dkleinsc]

He's a /. geek: Chances are good that there's not much risk of him having children.

Re:Growth promotors

[ColdWetDog]

And yet few want to talk about the root problem here. Too many humans.

Every time I hear someone utter this type of rhetoric I can't help but to think they are suicidal or homicidal maniacs.

Pound for pound the Earth can, and has, sustained a much larger mammalian population than your "unworthy of life" humans.

Homo industrialis has a much bigger environmental footprint that any dinosaur, whale or large mammal created. That said, other animals and plants have significantly changed the environment in the past to the detriment of some organisms and advantage of others. Shit happens.

Pharma will try but no promises....

[Anonymous Coward]

...I'm a pharma researcher at we have active programs trying to create next generation antibiotics, but the simple fact is evolution works. Eventually things will become resistant. These kinds of practices HAVE to stop because, frankly, it's getting harder to come up with new antibiotics. We have some new ideas, new biology is being uncovered, and different routes to attacking bugs are being explored. But the fact is that there will be fewer and fewer new classes of antibiotics rolling out. Pay the higher price for milk so that when you get strep throat you don't die from it. This clearly penny-wise pound-foolish thinking. A politician would do well to stand in the way of these practices under the guise of making sure that being able to protect our citizens and children from the ravages of infection wasn't just a "really nice period of humanity during the 20th and early 21st century before everything was resistant to everything." Think about someone sawing your kids leg off and then decide if milk is worth a buck / gallon more to you.

Nerds and humor

[mynameiskhan]

Obviously you have forgotten the meaning of a 'nerd'. Many are xkcd resistant strains.

Re:Drop Milk

[ByteSlicer]

60% of the global population can't digest milk once they become adults.

No, 60% of the global population can't fully digest milk sugar (lactose), which only constitutes 5% of milk by weight.
Of those people, many tolerate the undigested lactose to varying degrees, tied to geographical distribution of certain genes.
The other components of milk (water, protein, fat, calcium) can be digested normally.

Re:ummm uncommon antibiotics

[icebike]

It is far easier to cook a piece of meat sufficiently to kill germs than to cook your salad/fruits.

Not to mention your left arm, once it gets infected.