This recently published closed access paper by Sancheza, et al claims that levels of antibiotic resistance genes and antibiotic resistant bacteria are higher in outdoor air samples downwind of conventional cattle farms compared to organic cattle farms as shown with 3 different methods. This comes as little surprise, as it wasn’t until December 2013 that the …
Back in November, I posted about a superbug that emerged in China. The mcr-1 gene is known to be resistant to Colistin, a last resort antibiotic for superbug infections. Today, the first known case of the resistant strain of E. coli was reported here in the US (Pennsylvania). This is scary for many reasons and …
Today was an exciting day in the microbiology world with the launch of the White House OSTP National Microbiome Initiative in Washington, where the Who Is Who of microbiome research was gathered. Too bad I was not there! But I’ve compiled another set of nice papers and news articles on the microbiology of the built environment. Microbes in the City …
Flu and cold season is upon us; it seems everywhere I go there is someone around me coughing or sniffling. In this post, I bring to you 3 survival stories of the bugs going around this winter, while also shedding light on two, often ignored issues brought about by this wonderful season. I’ll begin by …
I was catching up on my NPR shows this evening and this one is definitely worth a listen. Here are the slides that they talk about in the podcast that summarize conversations with a focus group in England about antimicrobial resistance. Science Friday interviews Ed Young (who I highly recommend you follow on Twitter if you don’t already) …
A terrifying, yet not surprising article was published today in The Lancet Infectious Diseases about mcr-1. For those who aren’t familiar with it, mcr-1 is a gene associated with antibiotic resistance to colistin, a type of polymyxin antibiotic used to treat infections that are already resistant to several other types of antibiotics. News sources have …
A recent news article from Times of India discusses the dire effects of antibiotic overuse on public health in India. Although we always discuss this problem in terms of what we see in the US, it’s important to realize that antibiotic resistance is a problem everywhere. According to the article, the top three antibiotic using …
About a month ago, listeria found in Sabra Hummus caused a massive food safety recall across the US. So I got to thinking — how common are pathogens in the food we eat and how is this addressed on industrial scales? Food is processed, transported, and eaten in our built environments multiple times a day, …
When I jetted off to South America a year and a half ago, my doctor sent me with a bottle of Ciprofloxacin in case of an unfortunate bout of food poisoning. I thought little of it then, but what does it mean when millions of travelers head to developing countries with antibiotics? You guessed it …
Researchers in Egypt did a fascinating study recently on probiotics for fish. They tested the effect of three different types of Psuedomonas fluorescens on two pathogens that affect tilapia in the Nile (P. angulliseptica and S. faecium). Their aim was to find a more eco-friendly way of controlling the pathogens in aquaculture compared to chemical antimicrobials. The probiotic was indeed …