• Beth J Feingold, Ellen K Silbergeld, Frank C Curriero, Brigite A G L van Cleef, Max E O C Heck, and Jan A J W Kluytmans.
• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. beth.feingold@jhu.edu
• Emerging Infect. Dis. 2012 Nov 1;18(11):1841-9.

AbstractTo determine whether persons living in areas of high animal density are at increased risk for carrying livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA), we used an existing dataset of persons in the Netherlands with LA-MRSA carriage and controls who carried other types of MRSA. Results of running univariate and multivariate logistic regression models indicated that living in livestock-dense areas increases the odds of nasal carriage of LA-MRSA. We found that doubling pig, cattle, and veal calf densities per municipality increased the odds of LA-MRSA carriage over carriage of other types of MRSA by 24.7% (95% CI 0.9%-54.2%), 76.9% (95% CI 11.3%-81.3%), and 24.1% (95% CI 5.5%-45.9%), respectively, after adjusting for direct animal contact, living in a rural area, and the probable source of MRSA carriage. Controlling the spread of LA-MRSA thus requires giving attention to community members in animal-dense regions who are unaffiliated with livestock farming.

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