A coalition of food safety and environmental activists is urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test pigs, cattle and other food animals for the bacterial infection known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a disease that is resistant to antibiotics.

In making the plea, the coalition, Keep Antibiotics Working, pointed to the findings of a new study published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) journal Emerging Infectious Diseases linking some 20 percent of MRSA infections in the Netherlands to animal agriculture.

Many of the cases of MRSA in the Netherlands occurred in either pig farmers or cattle farmers, said the organization, which includes the National Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense, the Sierra Club, Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Union of Concerned Scientists, among others. It added that research published this fall in Veterinary Journal found that MRSA also was prevalent in Canadian pigs and pig farmers, “pointing again to animal agriculture as a source of the deadly bacteria,” the coalition said in a press release this week.

“This is popping up wherever there is testing, and it’s not being tested in the United States,” said Dan Klotz, a coalition spokesman. He attributed the lack of FDA testing to “a combination of a lack of urgency and a lack of resources.”

The activists say that FDA must determine to what extent agricultural sources are the origin of MRSA infections making their way into communities.

“Antibiotic resistance is exploding in our hospitals and communities. Medical experts point to the profligate use of antibiotics in animal feed as a significant cause, but those in charge of safeguarding our food system are mostly just whistling in the dark,” said Rebecca Goldburg, senior scientist at Environmental Defense.

FDA spokesman Brad A. Swezey said: “The FDA is currently not screening food animals or foods for MRSA but we are in discussions with the Centers for Disease Control to launch a pilot project.” The discussions are exploring whether the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, a joint effort of FDA, CDC, and the Department of Agriculture, can be used “to look for the presence of MRSA in retail foods of animal origin in the United States,” Swezey said.

The coalition said it will meet with congressional staffers in the next few days on moving legislation (S 549, HR 962) that would phase out the use of antibiotics in animal feed additives that are important in human medicine. Excessive use of those medications in animal feed is leading bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics used in humans, the coalition said. Agricultural and pharmaceutical interests oppose the legislation, the coalition said.

The CDC study and other researchers estimated earlier this year that 94,360 invasive MRSA infections occurred in the United States in 2005 and were associated with 18,650 deaths (See related story, CQ HealthBeat, Oct. 19, 2007). Researchers didn’t expect the incidence to be that high: “if their projection is accurate, these deaths would exceed the total number of deaths attributable” to AIDS in the United States in 2005, noted an editorial in the Oct. 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.