• Project number: F 2547
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Completed Project

Description:

If a pathogen that is resistant to antibiotics proliferates in livestock facilities, it can also pose a risk to humans. This is the case, for instance, with meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is often found in pig barns. One possible way of fighting this pathogen is to use bacteriophages against it.

The overarching goal of this project was to explore whether different bacteriophage cocktails could reduce the spread of MRSA in pig barns. A One Health approach was followed to address the issue. This meant the project not only studied the pathogen’s prevalence among livestock and in pig barns, but also simultaneously investigated its impacts on employees and the environment. Apart from this, modelling was carried out to calculate the consequences of deploying bacteriophages.

The project partners were able to isolate numerous bacteriophages from environmental samples and characterise them. They proved highly effective against MRSA in the laboratory. Unfortunately, the results could not be confirmed in experiments with pigskin from slaughtered animals. It was therefore not possible to formulate a sufficiently effective bacteriophage cocktail for use in livestock barns by the time the project period ended.

The Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, BAuA) did, however, succeed in detecting alterations to the bioaerosols in pig barns. Changes occurred both in the course of the fattening period and after farrowing. Furthermore, another project partner managed to demonstrate there was more MRSA on surfaces during the post-farrowing period. This is relevant for occupational safety and health because the pathogen is classified in risk group 2 and the project’s findings suggest employees may be more heavily exposed at this time. Further changes in the composition of bioaerosols over the fattening period also cause variations in employees’ exposure to pathogens, which should be taken into account when conducting risk assessments.

This project was financed by the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR).