porcupine may be adorable , but a young bailiwick suggests micro - organisms battling for authorisation on their skin led to a strain of antibiotic - resistant bacteria acquire in the 1800s – way before human being even pick up antibiotics .

Methicillin - resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA ) is a bacterium varietydiscovered in 1961that is resistant to wide - used beta - lactam antibiotic – include their namesake methicillin – making infections harder to address .

In2011 , a mental strain of MRSA with a resistance - giving gene calledmecCwas spotted in cows and world in Denmark and the UK .

“ Using sequencing technology we have trace the gene that givemecC - MRSA its antibiotic resistance all the way back to their first appearance and found they were around in the 19th C , ” said Dr Ewan Harrison , a senior generator of a new subject field in the journalNature , in astatement .

“ We think MRSA evolved in a struggle for selection on the skin of hedgehogs , and subsequently pass around to farm animal and humans through verbatim contact , ” Harrison explained .

The author theorize that this battle is betweenS. Aureusand the fungusTrichophyton erinacei , which can be found on the skin of hedgehogs and naturally release two beta - lactam antibiotic . This would have created “ a natural selective environment in which methicillin - resistantS. aureusisolates have an advantage , ” the writer compose , conduct to the emergence of MRSA .

The researchers sampled 276 Erinaceus europeaeus from wildlife delivery centers in Europe and New Zealand . Between 29 and 66 pct of European Erinaceus europaeus hadmecC - MRSA in their samples , and 6 per centum in New Zealand . However , they could n’t really collect hedgehog tissue to prove forT. erinaceidue to “ honourable restraint , ” so the actual tie between this fungus andmecC - MRSA is still undecipherable .

When the team look into the evolutionary history of the more successfulmecC - MRSA strains in Europe , they noted something surprising : Some line “ probably originated in the former - to - late 1800s , long before the first [ beta]-lactam – penicillin G – became wide available as a therapeutic option in the forties . ”

Although these results propose that porcupine were the origin of this specific variety of antibiotic - resistant bacterium , this does n’t mean that humans are off the hook for the dangerous climb in antibiotic opposition – or that we can come in all the rap on the spiky picayune guys .

” It is n’t just hedgehog that harbour antibiotic - resistive bacterium – all wildlife carries many different types of bacteria , as well as parasites , fungi and viruses , ” pronounce Professor Mark Holmes , a senior author of the paper .

This " represent a midget fraction of the risk compared to overuse of antibiotic drug in a human medical setting " and the risk to human wellness frommecC - MRSA is " very midget – almost peanut , " Holmestold the BBC .

Even so , you may want to stick with the CDC’sadvice ,   given after an eruption ofSalmonellaTyphimuriumin 2019 ,   to not “ kiss or snuggle hedgehogs , because this can spreadSalmonellagerms to your face and mouth and make you wan ” .

“ This subject field is a stark monition that when we use antibiotics , we have to use them with forethought . There ’s a very big wildlife ‘ source ’ where antibiotic - insubordinate bacterium can live – and from there it ’s a short gradation for them to be cull up by stock , and then to infect humans , ” Holmes proceed .