AWARDS | Innovation Grant Agriculture Origins of Community MRSA (2008)
Meghan Davis, DVM, MPH, Doctoral student, Dept of Environmental Health Sciences, JHSPH Davis's research, in conjunction with Ellen Silbergeld, Ph.D. (Department of Environmental Health Sciences), Kenrad Nelson, Ph.D. (Department of Epidemiology) and Amy Peterson, DVM, Ph.D. student, focuses on determining farm animals’ role in the spread of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylcoccus aureaus (CA-MRSA). While a study in the Netherlands associated strains of MRSA in cattle and pigs with community-acquired strains in humans, similar research has not been conducted in the United States. The study will provide some of the first evidence on the role of agricultural sources in community-associated MRSA. Surveillance of MRSA identified at U.S. hospitals has found that the increase in MRSA prevalence is being driven primarily by community transmission. Previous analyses have identified pigs and cows as one of the major sources of CA-MRSA, and the concentrated animal feeding operations common in the U.S. may increase prevalence and transmission of MRSA because animals are kept in very tight quarters and pathogens are spread easily. 
Results Research in progress
See Other Related Projects Food Animal Transport: A Potential Source of Community Exposures to Health Hazards from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (2005)
Ellen K. Silbergeld, PhD, Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, JHSPH Community Health Impacts of Agricultural Antibiotic Use (2003)
Ellen K. Silbergeld, PhD, Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences
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