Drug-resistant bugs now superbugs

The hardiest of drug-resistant bacteria don’t just rebuff antibiotics they eat them for lunch:

The researchers, led by George M. Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, found hundreds of bacteria that can subsist on antibiotics as their sole source of carbon. They isolated strains from soils in 11 locations, including alfalfa fields in Minnesota and urban plots in Boston, and fed them 18 natural and synthetic antibiotics, including common ones like penicillin and ciprofloxacin. Bacterial growth was seen with almost all of them.

The story notes that none of these bacteria cause disease in humans, BUT …

Bacterial gene transfer could have these superbugs pass some genes on to bacteria that DO make us sick.

Food can pass on supermicrobes

Score another one for mass agriculture. Food can pass on (and yes, you can take that as some sort of pun) antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The main foods carrying antimicrobial resistant bacteria were poultry meat, eggs, pork or beef as well as fresh salads, which can be contaminated during preparation, handling and processing, it said.

The panel found bacteria could be passed directly to people from contaminated food of animal origin carrying resistant bacteria which could colonize or infect people after ingestion.

Bacteria could also be passed to humans by the consumption of fresh produce from land irrigated with water contaminated by slurry or sewage. Food of animal and non-animal origin could also be contaminated during handling and preparation.

What this means is that bacteria are going to increase their resistance even more. Picture drug-resistant strains of E. coli or other bacteria coming to the U.S. from Argentinean beef or Chilean grapes and swapping genes with U.S. based strains of E. coli. Now do you see the problem?