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 …
The 4th International Conference on Responsible Use of Antibiotics in Animals is scheduled for 26-28 September in the Hague, the Netherlands. This is an important and timely topic with federal regulations changing current agricultural practices. Here is some information from the conference website: Antibiotics are used worldwide both in veterinary and human medicine. The widespread …
This article by Beth Mole is a fairly detailed summary of recent research on the effects of antimicrobial soaps. As we have mentioned before on microBEnet, antimicrobials increase resistance in the environment, wildlife, and people. In addition, the soaps are often not used for long enough to confer a benefit. The article particularly focuses on triclosan and triclocarban, …
New papers on the intersection of human activities and microbes, selected from my daily MicrobiomeDigest blog. Microbes in the house Generation and Characterization of Indoor Fungal Aerosols for Inhalation Studies – Anne Mette Madsen – Applied and Environmental Microbiology (OA) (…) The aim of this study was to develop an inhalation exposure system to be able to examine …
A great review has come out on the use and ramifications of antibiotics in agroecosystems. “Antibiotics in Agroecosystems: Introduction to the Special Section” by Allison Frankiln et al is a review that attempts to get everyone on the same page about antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistant genes in the environment. The article highlights …
There are a bunch of stories starting to come out based on some press and paper releases from the CDC yesterday. One that seems well done is this from CIDRAP: CDC notes progress, threat regarding hospital superbugs | CIDRAP. Today’s CDC report focused on the six most concerning antibiotic-resistant bacteria and found better progress against them …
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) …
I’m very excited about this news story. California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill requiring antimicrobial drugs to be available only through veterinary prescription and not simply for growth promotion. It’s a small step in limiting widespread resistance from overuse of antibiotics, but hopefully it serves as an example to other states and nations. China …
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 …
Michael Fischbach was at UC Davis today and gave a very interesting talk. A few of us were Tweeting from the talk and I compiled the Tweets via Storify and this is posted below.