Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Spreads Into Nature

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Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Spreads Into Nature

Main Category: MRSA / Drug Resistance

Also Included In: Biology / Biochemistry

Article 14 Jan 2008 - 2:00 PST

 

In the latest issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases,

Swedish researchers report that birds captured in the hyperboreal

tundra, in connection with the tundra expedition " Beringia 2005, "

were carriers of antibiotics-resistant bacteria. These findings

indicate that resistance to antibiotics has spread into nature, which

is an alarming prospect for future health care.

 

The scientists took samples from 97 birds in northeastern Siberia,

northern Alaska, and northern Greenland. These samples were

cultivated directly in special laboratories that the researchers had

installed onboard the icebreaker Oden and were further analyzed at

the microbiological laboratory at the Central Hospital in Växjö,

Sweden.

 

" We were extremely surprised, " says Björn Olsen, professor of

infectious diseases at Uppsala University and at the Laboratory for

Zoonosis Research at the University of Kalmar.

 

" We took samples from birds living far out on the tundra and had no

contact with people. This further confirms that resistance to

antibiotics has become a global phenomenon and that virtually no

region of the earth, with the possible exception of the Antarctic, is

unaffected. "

 

The researchers' hypothesis is that immigrating birds have passed

through regions in Southeast Asia, for example, where there is a

great deal of antibiotics pressure and carried with them the

resistant bacteria to the tundra.

 

" We already knew that birds in the Western world can be carriers of

bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, but it's alarming to find

that these bacteria exist among birds out on the tundra, " says Jonas

Bonnedahl, a physician infectious specializing in infectious diseases

in Kalmar and one of those participating in the expedition.

 

" Our findings show that resistance to antibiotics is not limited to

society and hospitals but is now spreading into the wild. Escalating

resistance to antibiotics over the last few years has crystallized

into one of the greatest threats to well-functioning health care in

the future. "

 

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.

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Contacts:

Björn Olsen, Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University

Jonas Bonnedahl, County Hospital in Kalmar

 

Source: Björn Olsen

Uppsala University