Five out of 90 samples of retail pork in Louisiana tested positive for MRSA – an antibiotic-resistant staph infection. A study of retail meats in the Washington, D.C., area found MRSA in one of every 300 pork samples, according to Jianghong Meng, the University of Maryland scholar who conducted the study.br /br /A new strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is called ST398 and seems to find a reservoir in modern hog farms. Research by Peter Davies of the University of Minnesota suggests that 25 percent to 39 percent of American hogs carry MRSA.br /br /”Unlike Europe and even South Korea, the United States still bows to agribusiness interests by permitting the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in animal feed,” wrote Nicholas D. Kristof two weeks ago in the New York Times. “That’s unconscionable. Legislation to ban the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture has always been blocked by agribusiness interests. For the sake of faster-growing hogs, we’re empowering microbes that endanger our food supply and threaten our lives.”br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /When penicillin was discovered in 1929, it was truly a wonder drug. Since then, it has been so overused, we are now losing the ability to stop infections in humans. MRSA already kills more than 18,000 Americans annually, more than AIDS does. Let me say that again – MRSA kills more people than AIDS.br /br /According to a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, “tetracycline, penicillin, erythromycin, and other antimicrobials important in human use are used extensively in the absence of disease for nontherapeutic purposes in today’s livestock production.” Nontherapeutic livestock use accounts for 70 percent of the antibiotics used. When all agricultural uses are considered (particularly fruits and vegetables), the share could be as high as 84 percent. The bulk of the antibiotics are given to animals that are not sick. And so the problem continues.br /br /This means that more than ever, you want a strong a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/immune_system_dysfunction.html”immune system/a to keep pathogens from taking hold.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-8102356685714759807?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div