Partnership to investigate the emergence of MRSA clones in cattle and their transmission to man.

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This research results from the recent discovery of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in dairy cattle in the UK that possess a divergent gene responsible for antibiotic resistance combined with the detection of the same divergent gene in a hospital MRSA isolate. This project is designed to answer questions about the prevalence of MRSA possessing the divergent gene in people, and in dairy cattle, and also to see if people closely associated with dairy farms are more likely to harbour the new MRSA. The research will take advantage of the latest genome sequencing technology through a partnership between the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and the Moredun Institute. The research itself will involve a survey of MRSA isolates obtained from 6 regional hospitals, a survey of 600 dairy herds and a case-control-study comparing herds infected with the novel MRSA and unaffected herds. The case-control study will also provide an opportunity to look at other staphylococcal species (coagulase negative staphylococci) that cause mastitis in dairy cows, and are known to have high levels of methicillin resistance, for evidence of the origins of the methicillin resistance gene. Genome sequencing will be used both to search the bacterial genomes for genetic mechanisms that are responsible for conferring antibiotic resistance and to look at family trees in fine detail to provide evidence of transmission and micro-evolution of MRSA.