Antibiotic resistance is a global and growing problem, part of which concerns the risk presented by animal reservoirs of resistant bacteria with the potential of spreading to humans. Livestock associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) is resistant to all betalactam antibiotics.

In countries with low prevalence of MRSA in humans, animal carriage may be a significant source of human infections. If introduced in the pig industry, where animals are kept under confined conditions, it may be difficult to eradicate. For countries free of LA-MRSA, preventing its introduction in the pig population could therefore be efficient. To our knowledge, no results on the costs and benefits of such measures have been published in the literature. Thus, our research article contributes to the discussion of what measures might be feasible to contain the spread of antibiotic resistance.