Rare Superbug Gene Discovered on US Pig Farm

[WhiteTara]

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/researchers-find-rare-superbug-gene-us-pig-farm-n692236

Researchers have found a rare and frightening superbug gene on a U.S. pig farm and say their discovery suggests raw meat could carry the dangerous germs into the human population.

No pigs scheduled for slaughter carried the mutant gene, the researchers stressed, and they haven't found any threat to people yet. And none of the pigs were sick. But the mutant should not have been on the farm at all and they have no idea how it got there.
A researcher at Walter Reed Army Institute for Research holds a sample being tested for superbugs. Maggie Fox, NBC News / NBC News

"It is an extremely rare gene. How it got on this farm, we don't know," said Thomas Wittum, chair of the veterinary medicine team at The Ohio State University, who led the study team.

The gene is called bla IMP-27 and it gives bacteria the ability to resist the effects of a class of antibiotics called carbapenems.

Carbapenems are considered an antibiotic of last resort, so germs that resist their effects are very difficult to kill.

[Lochloosa]

1. Watch this one. This could be bad.

[RKP5637]

3. I've always had this concern that bothers me that humanity could well end by

something of this ilk. Perhaps some one brilliant person/group out to infect humanity or something like that, or a country. Scary!

[FarCenter]

2. Resistance to drug of last resort found in farm animals in US

http://scienmag.com/resistance-to-drug-of-last-resort-found-in-farm-animals-in-us/

Carbapenem resistant bacteria are not uncommon in hospitals. However, in the US, carbapenems are not used in agriculture because of their importance to human health. "It's a surprise that they would show up in livestock," said corresponding author, Thomas Wittum, PhD, Professor and Chair of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, The Ohio State University.

[prairierose]

4. Scientists have been predicting this for years and my dad...

started talked about food safety and these problems in the 1980s. When factory farms were really getting started, he predicted our food supply would get more unsafe every year and that is exactly what has happened. Most people still believe the FDA watches out for our food. Not even close. Meet your local farmer. Support local CSAs or local family farmers.

Industrially produced food will kill you.

Here is a link to a doc from 2009 about part of the problem

[link:http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/a-river-of-waste-the-hazardous-truth-about-factory-farms-2009/|

[lonestarnot]

5. I hear Dumpster would like a Christmas ham at the Marlargo dump.

[jalan48]

6. How about we quit eating pigs?

[Javaman]

7. Yay!!!

more shit to worry about!

Yay!!!

[dembotoz]

8. and here is wisconsin scott walkers dnr claims it does not have to regulate factory farms