The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics has raised serious concerns over plans to build one of the UK’s biggest pig farms in Limavady in Northern Ireland. The plans for a farm producing 60,000 pigs per year are being fiercely opposed by local farmers, residents, and animal welfare and environmental campaigners [1]. The Alliance is raising concern on the grounds that there will be significant risks of antibiotic-resistant pathogens spreading from the farm to local residents.
Large intensive pig farms are frequently contaminated by many antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter, enterococci and even MRSA or Clostridium difficile. Numerous studies have found evidence that at least some of these bacteria can spread environmentally from the farms, endangering local communities [2][3].
Several strains of livestock-associated MRSA are now present in Northern Irish pig farms [4][5], and there is growing evidence from Europe and the United States that MRSA can spread from pig farms via aerosols or when pig slurry is applied to local fields [6][7][8][9][10]. Several studies have found that living in proximity to intensive pig farms or to fields where pig slurry was applied is associated with increased risk of being infected by MRSA [7][8].
A large survey carried out by the European Food Safety Authority found that the risk of a pig farm being MRSA-positive increased as the size of the pig farm increased [11]. EFSA said their finding was consistent with studies carried out in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy which also found that larger pig farms had significantly higher risk of being MRSA-positive. EFSA said that this might reflect ‘managerial practices typical of larger holdings’, including more buying in of animals with the risk of introducing more pathogens, and a higher likelihood that pathogens will circulate within the herd.
A further concern is the emergence of a strain of Clostridium difficile, called ribotype 078, which is frequently found in pigs in Europe and the United States. The strain is also present in British pigs and has become the most common strain infecting humans in Northern Ireland [12]. Dutch research has shown higher levels of Clostridium difficile in people with contact with pigs [13], and there are concerns the pathogen can also spread environmentally [14].
Suzi Shingler, campaign manager of the Alliance, said: “Intensively farmed pigs receive by far the highest quantities of antibiotics in UK farming, and we know this leads to lots of different types of resistant bacteria that can transfer to humans. This is often on food, but there is also increasing evidence that it can occur through the environment. The huge size of this pig farm will mean that this health threat to local residents will be magnified.”
Notes to Editors
The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics is an alliance of health, medical, environmental and animal welfare groups working to stop the overuse of antibiotics in animal farming. It was founded by Compassion in World Farming, the Soil Association and Sustain in 2009. Its vision is a world in which human and animal health and wellbeing are protected by food and farming systems that do not rely routinely on antibiotics and related drugs.
