MRSA/MRSP - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococci

General information

In human medicine, diseases caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are known and feared as so-called “nosocomial infections”. These are infections with pathogens that have developed resistance to common antibiotics, often as a result of inadequate disinfection measures in hospitals. The pathogens can enter the environment through visitors, personnel, equipment etc. As most of these infections in humans are zoonoses, pathogens can also be transmitted to animals as well as vice versa, because of the close contact between humans and animals. This probably also leads to an increase in MRSA cases in veterinary medicine.

In calves, young cattle and pigs, MRSA is detected in about every second animal (body) (zoonoses monitoring 2012). In agricultural livestock, MRSA of a certain line are predominant, so that the term livestock-associated or laMRSA is used. laMRSA mostly belong to the clonality CC398 and are responsible for 2% of MRSA cases in humans. In regions with high livestock density, laMRSA cause up to 10% of human MRSA cases and people with close animal contact, including veterinarians, are particularly at risk.

In small animals, we detect MRSP, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, far more frequently than MRSA. According to our own research, more than 10% of all isolates of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (formerly Staphylococcus intermedius in dogs) are already afflicted with a multi-resistance gene.