Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Found in Soil and Groundwater Surrounding Farms

Antibiotic use in animals has recently captured the attention of various professionals as the blatant, adverse effects have become increasingly prevalent. Agricultural manufacturers carelessly inject livestock with antibiotics in order to maximize their weight gain by minimizing the amount of energy consumed in fighting illnesses. This broad use of antibiotics in food-producing animals has contributed to the emergence and distribution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resulting in either mild or fatal illnesses. To put the severity of this issue in perspective, legislators must realize that 1 in 5 antibiotic-resistant infections are caused by bacteria from food and animals. Although antibiotic use in animals is not the sole culprit of the

Antibiotic resistance has emerged as one of the greatest public health concerns of the 21st century. Nearly every type of bacteria has become stronger and less responsive to antibiotic treatment. This can eventually make it impossible to treat certain infections, leading to serious disability or death. The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections can be attributed to overuse and over prescription. The uses of antibiotics in livestock are increasing resistance for animals and humans.

When antibiotic is used most of the bacteria die but a few bacteria with antibiotic resistance gene survive and reproduce and pass this advantage to their offsprings. This selective pressure exists naturally, however antibiotic misuse can be accused for fastening the spread of the antibiotic resistance gene [Refer to figure 2] (Learn Genetics 2015). Consequently, inappropriate antibiotic intake will lead to a greater chance of superbugs being developed. Antibiotic resistance can be defined as a new ability which a bacterium has developed to stay unattached in the presence of an antibiotic that was previously effective to destroy the bacterium (ABC science 2015). Four key mechanisms that has been identified for bacterial antibiotic resistance can be listed as: producing enzymes that inhibit the functionality of the drug, reducing the effectiveness of the drug by producing targets against which the antibiotic, reducing the permeability of the drug into the bacterium and active export of antibiotics using various pumps (Pogson 2012). All these mechanisms can be developed by any of the bacteria when the corresponding mutated gene of antibacterial resistance is received. The genes code for specific proteins, and variation in the gene leads to alteration of the shape of proteins. This leads to changing the functionality

In doing research for an example of natural selection, I came across antibiotic resistant bacteria. This has become one of the biggest threats to the healthcare community and Center for Disease Control. Through the use of antibiotics in treatments that are not necessarily bacterial infections, as well as the over use and misuse of antibiotics, bacteria have evolved in ways making the antibiotics used against them useless. If a bacteria manages to survive through a dose of an antibiotic, they are capable of mutating and can transfer their DNA to other bacteria. The new bacteria multiply quickly and spread to other parts of your body or outside of your body to a new host. Once the bacteria have mutated and its DNA has been transferred to

Sadly most recently there was a strain of Antibiotic resistant genes was transferred from human to animal, In this case it was a cow and about 7 people and a resistant strain of salmonella luckily no one died in this case. Although this is a step in the right direction we must keep the Industries and the FDA’s feet to the fire because without proper enforcement the producers could use similar amounts of antibiotics to “treat illness” in the livestock. These are changes we need to make to prevent the epidemic of Antibiotic

In the past tense 60 years, antibiotic drugs have been critical to the fight against infectious disease caused by bacteria and other microbe. Antimicrobial chemotherapy has been a lead cause for the dramatic rise of norm life expectancy in the Twentieth Century. 1 However, disease-causing bug that have become resistant to antibiotic drug therapy are an increasing public health trouble. “Wound contagion, tuberculosis, pneumonia, gonorrhea, childhood ear infections, and septicemia are just a few of the diseases that have become hard to treat with antibiotics.” 2 One part of the job is that bacteria and other germ that cause infections are remarkably resilient and have developed several ways to resist antibiotics and other antimicrobial drug. 3 Another part of the problem is due to increasing use, and abuse, of existing

Like any other organism, bacterium are subject to evolutionary pressure. Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is rarely the result of a single mutation leading to full resistance, but rather the result of a series of mutations that incrementally increased antibiotic resistance. For example, in the case of fluoroquinolone resistance, resistance started with a mutation in the efflux pump, granting Streptococcus pneumoniae the ability to survive certain treatment regimens (13). This became an issue when people started to misuse their antibiotics. In this particular example, because patients did not follow their prescription regimens, they only killed the bacteria not resistant to fluoroquinolone. This selective pressure drove bacteria to further develop fluoroquinolone resistance, meaning that the initial infection remained untreated, and would now require a

Frequent antibiotic use over long periods of time puts selective pressure on bacteria, and causes resistance to spread. When an antibiotic is used to treat a typical bacterial infection, most bacteria are killed. Sometimes, however, a bacterium with an advantage lives. This bacterium can then reproduce and pass its advantage on, creating many more antibiotic resistant bacteria.​ Sometimes in medicine, antibiotics are used too often or incorrectly, which can cause resistance to spread faster than it would

In today’s modern society, the use of antibiotics is becoming more and more prevalent. Due to the global population’s increased usage of medicines, some types of bacteria have developed antibiotic resistance, creating a race of superbugs. Superbugs are bacteria that are resistant to multiple types of antibiotics, and have the ability to survive and even multiply, despite antibiotic presence. This causes great danger to society as individuals infected with these bugs cannot be treated, as the antibiotics are made redundant. (State Government of Victoria, 2015) The looming threat of widespread antibiotic resistant bacteria raises the question,

The increased population of the world along with availability of global transport means resulted in the advancement of critical health situations that the current treatments cannot manage efficiently (Abdulamir 1). The World Economic Forum (WEF) concludes that, “We live in a bacterial world where we will never be able to stay ahead of the mutation curve. A test of our resilience is how far behind the curve we allow ourselves to fall” (Spellberg, et al.). Antibiotic resistance is truly driven by microbial exposure to all antibiotics whether they are appropriately prescribed or not (Spellberg, et al.). For example, antibiotic resistance was recently discovered among bacteria found in underground caves that had been isolated from the planet’s surface for four million years and was even found in synthetic antibiotics that were nonexistent on earth until the 20th century (Spellberg, et al.). As the cave example shows, antibiotic-resistant infections would prevail even if all antibiotic use was restricted and appropriate, so just restricting prescriptions alone will not suffice. Any more of the typical antibiotics found and even the new antimicrobials currently helping will not effectively fight resistance, for they will eventually be overpowered by the growth of resistance (Roemhild, et al. 945). By considering the evolution

While so much has been focusing on the medical consequences in human, there has been little focus on the impacts that antibiotics use in livestock could do to our environment. Throughout the year, farm owners continue to dump antibiotics down into the land, since land application of manure is a rather common practice in the United States (Kumar, Gupta, Chander & Singh, 2005, p.3). As time passes, some of the ingredients in the manure, including antibiotics, spread throughout the landscape, into lakes, rivers and groundwater. Together with the fact that ground and surface waters are not regularly tested for antibiotics in the United States, we don’t know the extent of contamination in these parts (Kumar, Gupta, Chander & Singh, 2005, p.5). In a report conducted in 2003, scientists discovered that there is heavy trace of tetracycline and sulfonamide along the Poudre River as it entered the urban and agricultural landscape in Colorado (Kumar, Gupta, Chander & Singh, 2005, p.5). With all these tiny drug particles flowing from one city’s sewer plant into another, many cities simply don’t have the resources to screen out all the byproducts from our drinking water (Knopper, 2003, p.40). While the chance that one could drink a glass of water that consists of antibiotic-resistant strain is slim, it is still very alarming that it could end up in our body with a slip of water. In addition

According to the Antibiotic Paradox theory of Professor Stuart B. Levy (Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, USA), “use of antibiotics itself is contributing to the problem of microbial resistance to antibiotics”. Mixed population of antibiotics-sensitive and antibiotic-resistant bacteria reside in our environment. Use of antibiotics in unconscious and ignorant way (antibiotic usage for casual illness, antibiotic administration in animal feeds, and poor disposal of unused drug formulations) is obliterating sensitive bacteria, which supress the resistant bacteria. By killing the friends, we are making it way much easier for the foes. This renders selection of antibiotic-resistant organisms out of the mixed

With all this mass production of meat and eggs and dairy, it is no wonder our health is affected as a result of unsanitary conditions and over-drugged and over-stressed animals. The public is at risk for E. coli poisoning, salmonella poisoning, Mad Cow Disease, the swine flu, the bird flu, all which are transmittable from animal to human. Eighty percent of our nation’s antibiotics produced are distributed to farm animals, not to keep them from getting sick, but to make them grow bigger, faster and to be able to tolerate living in crowded quarters. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that this has contributed to the emergence of virulent supergerms that are resistant to antibiotics. In Sabrina Tavernise’s article, “Farm Use of Antibiotics Defies Scrutiny,” she speaks with the director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida, and he states, “The single biggest problem we face in infectious disease today is the rapid growth of resistance to antibiotics. Human use contributes to that, but use in animals clearly has a part too” (Tavernise).

The overuse of antibiotics has been a problem for well over a decade. This misuse leads to many nonvisible problems arising within the human population. As the use of antibiotics increases, the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria also increases. When bacteria become resistant to an antibiotic, another antibiotic must be used to try and kill it and the cycle becomes vicious. Michael Martin, Sapna Thottathil, and Thomas Newman stated that antimicrobial resistance is, “an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society” (2409).

However, the usage of antibiotics in agriculture is a contributor to the continual growing issue of antibiotic resistance. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “[a] post-antibiotic era – in which common infections and minor injuries can kill… is instead a very real possibility for the 21st Century” (World Health Organization) because of antibiotic resistance.