Arctic birds were carriers of antibiotics-resistant bacteria, signifying that resistance to antibiotics has spread into nature, which can be dangerous for future health care.
Swedish researchers have found that Arctic birds were carriers of antibiotics-resistant bacteria, signifying that resistance to antibiotics has spread into nature, which can be dangerous for future health care.
The researchers reported that birds captured in the hyperboreal tundra, in connection with the tundra expedition �Beringia 2005,� were carriers of antibiotics-resistant bacteria.In the research, samples were taken from 97 birds in northeastern Siberia, northern Alaska, and northern Greenland.
The scientists cultivated these samples directly in special laboratories that they had installed onboard the icebreaker Oden and were further analyzed at the microbiological laboratory at the Central Hospital in V�xj�, Sweden.
�We were extremely surprised,� said Bj�rn 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,� added Olsen.
The scientists assume 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.
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�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,� added Bonnedahl.
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Source-ANI
SRM /B
