Growing wild boar population could be spreading deadly superbug

BRITAIN’S wild boars may be carrying a deadly super bug, according to scientists.

Fears are growing that the animals, the population of which is growing out of control, are harbouring an antibiotic-resistant strain of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on their snouts, which could spread to humans as they roam around the countryside. According to a report by researchers at the Moredun Research Institute at Penicuik, near Edinburgh, the boar are a “risk to human health”.

Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, has called for restrictions on the numbers of boar in woodlands. He said: “I’m not keen on introducing new animals. They may be very nice to look at in the countryside, good for the tourist industry and hunting, but we have to look at what might happen should they be carrying organisms that we would rather not have.”

The study, published in the journal Science Of The Total Environment, stated: “It is a concern when MRSA is inhabiting the skin and nose of wild animals and is characterised with resistance to various antimicrobial agents in clinical use.

“The convergence between habitats can lead to contact between wild ani- mals and humans and this can increase risks of bacterial transfer and promote risks to human health.”

Researchers checked 45 beasts in Portugal for signs of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and found an MRSA strain called CC398 in one of them. Humans can catch the strain from livestock and it is known to have killed at least six people in Denmark, where it is prevalent. There are fears the bug – which has spread throughout Europe – is now no longer restricted to livestock and could be in UK wild pigs.

Feral pigs were once hunted to extinction in the UK – but now there are fresh colonies springing up, encouraged by campaigners who want to see them return.

Superbugs kill thousands of Britons each year. MRSA has contributed to the deaths of nearly 2,400 Scots in the past two decades, mainly through outbreaks in hospitals.