Review of pork and pork products as a source for transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Review Article

International Journal of One Health, 8(2): 167-177

https://doi.org/10.14202/IJOH.2022.167-177

Aswin Rafif Khairullah¹, Sri Agus Sudjarwo², Mustofa Helmi Effendi³, Sancaka Cashyer Ramandinianto⁴, Maria Aega Gelolodo⁵, Agus Widodo¹, Katty Hendriana Priscilia Riwu¹, and Dyah Ayu Kurniawati⁴

1. Doctoral Program in Veterinary Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia.
2. Department of Veterinary Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia.
3. Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia.
4. Master Program in Veterinary Disease and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia.
5. Department of Animal Infectious Diseases and Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Nusa Cendana, Kupang, Indonesia.

Background and Aim: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an opportunistic bacterium that can cause infection in animals and humans. Recently, MRSA from food-producing or farm animals has been identified as livestock-associated MRSA (LA-MRSA). The spread of LA-MRSA is particularly found in pork and pork products because LA-MRSA has been widely known to infect pigs. The most common type of LA-MRSA identified in pork and pork products is the clonal complex LA-MRSA 398 (LA-MRSA CC398). The MRSA strains on the surface of pork carcasses can be spread during the handling and processing of pork and pork products through human hands, cutting tools, and any surface that comes into direct contact with pork. Food infection is the main risk of MRSA in pork and pork products consumed by humans. Antibiotics to treat food infection cases due to MRSA infection include vancomycin and tigecycline. The spread of MRSA in pork and pork products is preventable by appropriately cooking and cooling the pork and pork products at temperatures above 60°C and below 5°C, respectively. It is also necessary to take other preventive measures, such as having a clean meat processing area and disinfecting the equipment used for processing pork and pork products. This review aimed to explain epidemiology, transmission, risk factors, diagnosis, public health consequences, treatment of food poisoning, and preventing the spread of MRSA in pork and pork products.

Keywords: antibiotics, livestock, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, pork products, public health.

How to cite this article: Khairullah AR, Sudjarwo SA, Effendi MH, Ramandinianto SC, Gelolodo MA, Widodo A, Riwu KHP, and Kurniawati DA (2022) Review of pork and pork products as a source for transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Int. J. One Health, 8(2): 167-177.

Received: 26-04-2022 Accepted: 13-10-2022 Published online: 12-12-2022

Corresponding author: Mustofa Helmi Effendi E-mail: mhelmieffendi@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2022.167-177

Copyright: Khairullah, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.