A strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria discovered in pigs is spreading to people and causing infections, according to a new study released this week.
A strain of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) is suspected to have emerged among European pigs and other livestock in the past several decades because of frequent antibiotic use in farming.
“Historically high levels of antibiotic use” may have led to the cause of this “highly antibiotic-resistant strain of MRSA on pig farms,” said Dr. Gemma Murrayn, who worked on the study released by the University of Cambridge, in a news release. 
“We found that the antibiotic resistance in this livestock-associated MRSA is extremely stable—it has persisted over several decades, and also as the bacteria has spread across different livestock species,” Murrayn added in the news release….