Scientists studying the C. difficile superbug say that its antibiotic-resistant genes have been found in pigs and humans, meaning that not only is transmission of the bacteria possible on a wider scale, but the genes that resist antibiotics themselves might be able to spread through an animal vector to humans.
A bit tangential but I read a book called Dead Epidemiologists which outlined out how the modern industrial process of animal rearing is a major driver in allowing the evolution of new varieties of pathogens. In industrial farms you have animals in extremely close proximity to each other which gives plenty of leeway for pathogens to spread and mutate.
Oh yeah, I’ve read about this as well. It’s both the problem of animals being kept in horrific conditions, then being fed large amounts of antibiotics to mitigate the disease. The runoff from the farms is also contributing to this. You end up with animal waste full of antibiotics and bacteria that evolves in that waste to be immune to antibiotics. Factory animal farming is sort of like having bioweapon labs all over the place.