resistance – BioQuakes

As more countries begin to mass produce animal products, more antimicrobials are used to keep the animals from spreading disease. However, this commonplace antimicrobial use results in antimicrobial resistance, specifically in low and middle-income countries with few rules in place. Interestingly, most instances of microbial resistance occur in Asia and South America, but there are few instances in Africa.

Once animals develop antimicrobial resistance, it affects the rest of the food chain. When farmers give their animals antimicrobials, all of their stomach bacteria besides the resistant kind is killed. As a result, antimicrobial-resistant bacteria can spread to the soil, to produce, and to humans. Potentially, in a world without antimicrobials, even simple surgeries can be unimaginably dangerous, and diseases can be difficult to treat. At the moment, in certain countries, people are developing drug-resistant strains of malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, and even HIV.

A description of how drug resistant bacteria reproduce after other bacteria are killed.

Researchers have multiple ways of testing the spread of antimicrobial resistance. They can search for pockets where animals carry illnesses that are resistant to antimicrobials, such as penicillin. Researchers now test how many animals have resistance to drugs by giving them drugs and seeing if the animals respond. In antimicrobial-resistant hotspots, up to 50% of animals may not respond to drugs. People can struggle to find accurate information regarding the amount of drug-resistant animals, specifically in South America, where information is not always public. Researchers have also created the Resistance Bank, where people can see the specific antibiotics animals are resistant to. Its goal is to increase awareness in lower-income countries who may not have the resources to publish scientific articles describing the levels of antimicrobial resistance.

How can we protect ourselves from this growing threat? On a global scale, the spread of antimicrobial-resistant diseases can only be completely slowed with the halting of overuse on people and animals. In contrast, if we each wash our hands often, cook meat before eating it and use separate preparing utensils for raw meat and all other foods, and spread awareness about the overuse of antibiotics, perhaps each one of us can help halt the spread of antimicrobial-resistant infections.

As we all know, antibiotics can be used to cure infections and kill bacteria, but the also often come with the many side effects that the infomercials so quickly warn us of. However, we often overlook aspects of antibiotics and rely on them to heal us in a variety of ways.

This then causes too much reliance on antibiotics, and in fact, humans are becoming immune to these medicines and too much use takes from their ability to have positive results.

This displays the alignment of veal that has been modified and undergone treatment to fight possible bacteria.

Animals have been receiving harsh treatment and experience weight gain as a result of being given antibiotics for growth promotion in order to sell more meat without disease. However, animals experience the same resistance over time. The Environmental Working Group is concerned about this, because most of the meat sold in grocery stores is made up of a large amount of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This, too, can easily be passed on to humans by consumption, as the Food and Drug Administration states.

Due to this resistance to antibiotics and its misuse, many are concerned that the amount of antibiotics served to both humans and animals needs to be lowered, which is much easier said than done. The ultimate goal would be to continue to fight bacteria as opposed to promoting its resistance, as one would assume. However, it is interesting to know how large of an affect antibiotics have on both the human and animal reactions in their bodily systems, and how misuse can alter the bacteria as well as the reason for their need.

Article Link:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-are-the-consequences-of-antibiotic-overuse/

Additional Links:

http://www.cdc.gov/narms/animals.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/safe/overview.html

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm378100.htm

Image Link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veal#mediaviewer/File:MIN_Rungis_viandes_de_boucherie_veau.jpg

BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Tag: resistance

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