Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in veterinary practice

Staphylococcus aureus is notable for its ubiquity in human and animal hosts, mostly just colonising mammals but sometimes causing invasive disease, which ranges from common minor infections to uncommon severe, sometimes fatal infections. It is also notable for its ability to become resistant to antibiotics; in particular, multiresistant strains emerged in the late 1960s and became endemic in human hospitals almost worldwide in the 1980s. These strains were resistant to methicillin, hence the term methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), the mechanism of resistance conferring resistance to all beta-lactams (except the new anti-MRSA cephalosporins). These strains have proven challenging to control in human hospitals and multifaceted approaches involving administrative support, education, judicious use of antibiotics, MRSA surveillance, infection control precautions, environmental measures and in selected cases, decolonisation, have been recommended.