Sweden finds MRSA 398 in imported Danish pork

Most people think of Danish pork, ham and bacon as being the best of its kind in the world.  This title has slipped a little in recent times, as the MRSA virus is found to be present in a large percentage of Danish pork products.  

Sweden's National Veterinary Institute has found that four in every twenty packs of Danish pork, bought in various parts of the Stockholm area, carry the resistant MRSA 398 bacteria. MRSA 398 is a variant of the bacteria that can be transmitted from animal to human.

At first the MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) incidents were only affecting Denmark, but now its spreading.  However, while the bacteria is found in four out of every pack of the pork in Sweden, reportedly a random sampling carried out in Germany came up with the MRSA bacteria in only one of 20 packages of Danish pork.

In Denmark itself, the incidences are around the same as in Sweden.  The Technical University of Denmark ran an analysis on 100 packages of the Danish pork and encountered the MRSA 398 bacteria in 21 of the packs.  This shows a steep increase from only five years ago, when analyses found the presence of the bacteria in only five percent of the pork products.

The latest sampling in Sweden was organized by the Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, working together with the National Veterinary Institute (Statens veterinärmedicinska).

The health of the pigs themselves is not affected by MRSA, and the bacteria they carry isn't particularly dangerous for healthy people.  However, for anyone already feeling week or ill, and suffering from bad health, this bacteria can cause blood poisoning and in the worse cases, can lead to death.

Two leading experts in the field found in August that there are currently up to 12,000 people infected with MRSA 398 in Denmark. Now, together with the Swedish findings, officials are becoming concerned.

Olov Aspevall, who is chief physician of the Swedish Public Health Agency (Folkhälsomyndigheten) told Dagens Nyheter that it is unlikely that anyone would become infected through the meat.  However, he said it is "unpleasant to know that there are resistant bacteria in the food that you buy."

With Norway's largest retailer, back in July, considering a stop on all important Danish Pork, it looks like Sweden might follow suit.  Last year the country imported 142,000 tonnes of pork products, with three-quarters of that coming in from Denmark and Germany.

Swedish sources:

Aftonbladet

DN.Ekonomi 

Roast Danish pork image Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic  John Krogh