Treating dairy cows and other farm animals with antibiotics and then laying their manure in soil can cause the bacteria in the dirt to grow resistant to the drugs. But a study now suggests that the manure itself could be contributing to resistance, even when it comes from cows that are free of antibiotics...
@ Manure fertilizer increases antibiotic resistance : Nature News & Comment:
Links to Nikolina Udikovic-Kolic, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1409836111
Nikolina Udikovic-Kolic, Fabienne Wichmanna, Nichole A. Broderick, and Jo Handelsman
Significance
The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is one of the most serious threats to public health in the 21st century. One route by which resistance genes enter the food system is through amendment of soils with manure from antibiotic-treated animals, which are considered a reservoir of such genes. Previous studies have associated application of pig manure with the dispersal of sulfonamide-resistance genes to soil bacteria. In this study, we found that dairy cow manure amendment enhanced the proliferation of resident antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes encoding β-lactamases in soil even though the cows from which the manure was derived had not been treated with antibiotics. Our findings provide previously unidentified insight into the mechanism by which amendment with manure enriches antibiotic-resistant bacteria in soil.
See also: GMO Pundit JUL 8 2012 What is Bias Part 3. It's OK to spread 7 kg of toxic persistent copper chemical pesticide to be used on an organic farm per year per hectare but zero tolerance for any GMO
No comments:
Post a Comment