MANY genes that turn ordinary bacteria into antibiotic-resistant 鈥渟uperbugs鈥� come from the soil beneath our feet.
The emergence of hospital superbugs has been blamed on giving antibiotics to farm animals to speed their growth, and on overprescription of antibiotics by doctors. But the real story may be more complicated.
Vanessa D鈥機osta at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues tested 480 bacterial strains sampled randomly from soil in farms, forests and gardens. All resisted between six and eight antibiotics, while two strains were resistant to 15. There was even widespread resistance to two newly approved semi-synthetic antibiotics, which the soil bacteria could never have encountered naturally (Science, vol 311, p 374).
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That means the genes and biological mechanisms that make hospital bugs resistant are also abundant in ordinary bacteria.
