b'Is Factory Farming making us sick?MRSA 134 , while in 2013, research suggestedSymptoms in peoplethat just living close to an intensive pig orInfection can cause symptoms such as poultry farm could lead to greater exposureboils, abscesses, styes, carbuncles (large to the bacteria 135 . pus-filled lumps under the skin), cellulitis (infection of the deep layer of the skin, fat Monitoring of farmed animal-associatedand tissues) or impetigo (highly contagious MRSA (LA-MRSA) is voluntary under currentskin infection that causes blisters). If legislation. The UK does not participate 136 . the bacteria get into the bloodstream, they can cause blood poisoning, septic Routes of transmission shock (infection of blood that can lead The bacteria are carried on the skin andto organ failure), septic arthritis (severe in the nasal passages of healthy peoplejoint inflammation), osteomyelitis (bone and animals and can be passed betweeninfection), meningitis, pneumonia or species simply through direct contact orendocarditis (infection of the heart lining) 142 .through sneezing, coughing or breathing. Infections can also develop when theTreatmentbacteria enter the body through a wound.While some MRSA strains are resistant to many important antibiotics, most are It is commonly found in farmed animalssaid to respond to an intensive course of (in 2012, 70 per cent of pigs at slaughter inantibiotics. People with invasive infections Denmark were MRSA positive 137 ) and can bemay be hospitalised and isolated to prevent passed from pigs to farm workers, and thenspread 143 .onto other people 138 .It has also been found in milk 139and in meat in the UK 140 . Pasteurising milk should kill it, as should properly cooking meat but lapses in hygiene can allow the infection to take hold 141 . Symptoms in animalsMRSA infected farmed animals often show no symptoms.23'