Livestock-associated MRSA detected in pigs in Great Britain

FOLLOWING the recent report of the detection of livestock-associated meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) in a pig from a farm in Northern Ireland (Hartley and others 2014), we wish to report the isolation of LA-MRSA from piglets with skin disease from a breeder-finisher farm, located in eastern England. Two 10-day-old piglets with skin lesions were submitted to an APHA veterinary investigation centre on December 30, 2014. Eleven litters were affected and, of 60 piglets with the condition, six died. Treatment had been with parenteral amoxicillin. Both piglets submitted for investigation had been euthanased and had multifocal skin lesions ranging from 2 mm to 20 mm in size, with an overlying, crusting, fibrinous exudate. Gross lesions were similar to those observed in exudative epidermitis (known as greasy pig disease). Cultures of affected areas of skin from both piglets and of lung from one piglet yielded profuse growths of S aureus , which were positive for the altered penicillin-binding protein (PBP2') by …