Livestock Industrial Agriculture Exposure Ups Odds of MRSA

And, incidence of health care-, hospital-onset MRSA down more than community-onset since 2005

TUESDAY, Sept. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Exposure to swine and dairy/veal industrial agriculture is associated with increased odds of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection; and, the incidence of health care-associated community-onset (HACO) and hospital-onset MRSA infections has decreased since 2005, according to two studies published online Sept. 16 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Joan A. Casey, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues examined the correlation between individual exposure to swine and dairy/veal industrial agriculture and the risk of MRSA infection. Data were included from 1,539 community-associated MRSA cases; 1,335 health care-associated MRSA cases; 2,895 skin and soft-tissue infection cases; and 2,914 controls. The highest quartile of swine crop field exposure correlated significantly with community-associated MRSA, health-care MRSA, and skin and soft-tissue infection cases status after adjustment for MRSA risk factors (adjusted odds ratios, 1.38, 1.30, and 1.37, respectively). For each outcome there was a trend of increasing odds across quartiles.

Raymund Dantes, M.D., M.P.H., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues describe national estimates and characteristics of health care- and community-associated invasive MRSA infections in 2011. The researchers found that there were an estimated 80,461 invasive MRSA infections, of which 48,353 were HACO infections; 14,156 were hospital-onset infections; and 16,560 were community-associated infections. Since 2005, the adjusted national estimated incidence rates decreased by 27.7 percent for HACO infections; by 54.2 percent for hospital-onset infections; and by 5.0 percent for community-associated infections.

"Effective strategies for preventing infections outside acute care settings will have the greatest impact on further reducing invasive MRSA infections nationally," Dantes and colleagues write.

Abstract - Casey
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Abstract - Dantes
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