Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Oral Answer of the Minister of State, the hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth of 18 June 2015, Official Report, column 445, what the evidential basis is for the statement that livestock-associated MRSA does not cross to the human population; and what assessment her Department has made of evidence that MRSA ST398 can and does pass from pigs to humans, causing serious infections and fatalities.

The most common type of LA-MRSA in Europe belongs to clonal complex 398 (CC398). MRSA CC398 is less virulent and transmissible compared to other strains and is unlikely to pass from person to person and become endemic in the human population.

However studies from various countries in continental Europe have demonstrated that in limited circumstances it is possible for MRSA CC398 to be transmitted from animals to people. This tends to be constrained to those who have regular contact with livestock that are carrying the bacteria, in particular pigs.