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Patterns of antibiotic-resistant bacteria seen in Galápagos reptiles
http://news.illinois.edu/news/12/0123drug_resistance_RoderickMackie.html[font face=Times, Serif][font size=5]Patterns of antibiotic-resistant bacteria seen in Galápagos reptiles[/font]
1/23/2012 | Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor | 217-333-5802; diya@illinois.edu
[font size=3]CHAMPAIGN, lll. — Land and marine iguanas and giant tortoises living close to human settlements or tourist sites in the Galápagos Islands were more likely to harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria than those living in more remote or protected sites on the islands, researchers report in a new study.
Feces collected at several different sites from free-living reptiles harbored Escherichia coli bacteria that were resistant to ampicillin, doxycycline, tetracycline and trimethoprin/sulfamethoxazole. Another bacterial species collected from the feces, Salmonella enterica, was found to be only mildly resistant or not resistant at all to the same antibiotics, most likely because of the differing ecology of these two bacterial species in the gut, researchers said.
The study results are reported in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
This is not the first study to find that wild animals living near humans or affected by tourism can obtain antibiotic-resistant bacteria from that exposure, said University of Illinois animal sciences professor Roderick Mackie, who led the study. But it does offer researchers and wildlife managers a way to determine which vulnerable animal species are most at risk of exposure to human pathogens.
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http://www.jwildlifedis.org/content/48/1/56.abstract?sid=87aec782-0efc-4b0c-bc4a-610037e82ada1/23/2012 | Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor | 217-333-5802; diya@illinois.edu
[font size=3]CHAMPAIGN, lll. — Land and marine iguanas and giant tortoises living close to human settlements or tourist sites in the Galápagos Islands were more likely to harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria than those living in more remote or protected sites on the islands, researchers report in a new study.
Feces collected at several different sites from free-living reptiles harbored Escherichia coli bacteria that were resistant to ampicillin, doxycycline, tetracycline and trimethoprin/sulfamethoxazole. Another bacterial species collected from the feces, Salmonella enterica, was found to be only mildly resistant or not resistant at all to the same antibiotics, most likely because of the differing ecology of these two bacterial species in the gut, researchers said.
The study results are reported in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
This is not the first study to find that wild animals living near humans or affected by tourism can obtain antibiotic-resistant bacteria from that exposure, said University of Illinois animal sciences professor Roderick Mackie, who led the study. But it does offer researchers and wildlife managers a way to determine which vulnerable animal species are most at risk of exposure to human pathogens.
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