Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Super Bugs In The Fish We Eat

This is a great article contributed by our friend and amazing student fellow at the Smithsonian Institute, Brian Davidson. Bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics are starting to make their way into the fish we eat.

"Antibiotics are ubiquitous in today's world, used to control infections in our bodies and tamp down bacterial growth in our food supply. But the chemicals are also leaking into rivers, lakes, and our oceans, where their effects have mostly been ignored.

A team of researchers led by Jason Blackburn of the University of Florida sampled 134 fish living in coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Belize, and Massachusetts. They then tested the samples for signs of drug-resistant bacteria, using a suite of twelve common antibiotics.

Resistance was found everywhere they looked, to varying degrees. Pronounced resistance to an array of drugs was found in sharks in Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys, for example. Samples from redfish off the coast of Louisiana showed signs of shrugging off the drugs, too."

Head over to Discovery to read the article.

1 comment:

  1. Fascinating article. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete