According to a recent story in the New York Times, MRSA infections have been showing up in pets over the past five years and are becoming a growing problem for veterinarians. Drug-resistant pathogens have been turning up with increasing regularity in birds, cats, dogs, horses, pigs, rabbits and rodents.
Cats have proven to be a significant source for MRSA infection, according to a study published over the summer in the American Journal of Infection Control. Researchers at the Center for Hygiene and Health in Home and Community at Simmons College in Boston swabbed various household surfaces, from bathtub drains to trash cans and kitchen sponges. Thirty-five addresses selected at random were found to harbor MRSA in nearly half of the homes sampled.
Ruled out were risk factors such as working out at a gym, having children who attended day care, having a recent infection or recent antibiotic use, or working in a health care facility.
That left the household cat. Cat owners were eight times more likely than others to have MRSA at home.
"There are a number of papers coming out now showing that pets pick up MRSA from us," said Dr. Elizabeth A. Scott of Simmons College, "and that they shed it back into the environment again."
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Oehler reviewed case histories of MRSA infections jumping between pets and humans, publishing his findings in The Lancet this past July.
There is agreement on the need for more frequent hand-washing—especially after handling a pet.
A pet is a gift that can keep on giving and most would rather not have this particular gift at play. Nonetheless, the prevailing wisdom is that any pet with an MRSA infection probably acquired it from a human—and many of those infections originated in a hospital setting.