Comments on: Antibiotic Resistant Genes Increasing in Soil Microbes

By: Antibiotic resistance genes in soil microbes | The Health Culture

Antibiotic resistance genes in soil microbes | The Health Culture — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:07:15 +0000

[...] lead researcher David Graham explains: “The genes themselves do not get passed directly to humans per se. The genes get passed from [...]

By: Death Metal

Death Metal — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:59:00 +0000

Darn it
I just typed a whole long message, and when I tried to send it my browser hung.
Was it somehow saved or do I need to retype the whole thing?

By: Michael Ricciardi

Michael Ricciardi — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:28:25 +0000

Yes, thank you. This is an important observation. Although there is in general a lack of data showing how quickly resistance spreads through a population, we can be certain that continuing business as usual with only make things worse and, given the ease with which bacteria mutate, add to the acceleration of the problem. It seems that another round of studies will need to be done to convince politicians to change and regulate this practice.

By: Jim Bynum

Jim Bynum — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:58:23 +0000

While it is easy to blame the rise of antibiotic resistance on hospitals and agricultural use, or misuse, of drugs, the real source of antibiotic resistant soil bacteria is more likely a result of resistance transfer in sewage and water treatment plants. During the 70s and 80s both were documented. The resulting sludges have been dumped on agriculural land as soil amendments even though Salmonella and E. coli were known to survive on grazing land for over 70 weeks. Despite documentation, EPA, FDA, and USDA have an on going 1980 policy to spread antibiotic resistant bacteria in treated sludge/biosolids and reclaimed water as a fertilizer and irrigation water on food crops, grazing land, parks, forest land, school grounds as well as home lawns and gardens. See some studies from 1963 to 2009.
http://thewatchers.us/index/antibiotic-resistance-markers.html