High prevalence of nasal MRSA carriage in slaughterhouse workers in contact with live pigs in The Netherlands.

Livestock-associated MRSA has been found in various animals, livestock farmers and retail meat. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and determinants of nasal MRSA carriage in pig slaughterhouse workers. Three large pig slaughterhouses in The Netherlands were studied in 2008 using human and environmental samples. The overall prevalence of nasal MRSA carriage in employees of pig slaughterhouses was 5.6% (14/249) (95% CI 3.4-9.2) and working with live pigs was the single most important factor for being MRSA positive (OR 38.2, P<0.0001). At the start of the day MRSA was only found in environmental samples from the lairages (10/12), whereas at the end of the day MRSA was found in the lairages (11/12), the dirty (5/12) and clean (3/12) areas and green offal (1/3). The MRSA status of the environmental samples correlated well with the MRSA status of humans working in these sections (r=0.75). In conclusion, a high prevalence of nasal MRSA carriage was found in pig-slaughterhouse workers, and working with live pigs is the most important risk factor. Exact transmission routes from animals to humans remain to be elucidated in order to enable application of targeted preventive measures.

11B[27Al] and 27Al[11B] double resonance experiments on a glassy sodium aluminoborate.

Cross-polarization/magic-angle spinning (CP/MAS) and rotational echo double resonance (REDOR) experiments involving two half-integer quadrupolar nuclei, 11B and 27Al, are reported, to demonstrate boron-aluminum connectivities in a model aluminoborate glass. A detailed study of the spin-lock behavior of 11B and 27Al proves to be a prerequisite for successful CP/MAS experiments. Under MAS conditions, two distinct boron sites are observed, corresponding to tetrahedral BO4/2- sites (nuclear electric quadrupole coupling constant near 0.3 MHz) and trigonal BO3/2 sites (nuclear electric quadrupole coupling constant near 2.7 MHz). The BO4/2- sites are most successfully spin-locked in the adiabatic regime at high radio frequency (RF) field strengths, whereas for the BO3/2 sites optimum spin-lock conditions are achieved in the sudden regime (low RF field strengths). These differences can be exploited for spectral editing purposes in REDOR experiments. Using corresponding T1p filters, it becomes possible to measure individual REDOR dephasing curves for both types of boron sites. The results illustrate the possible utility of heteronuclear X-Y double resonance techniques in unravelling the intermediate range order in amorphous systems containing quadrupolar nuclei.