Antibiotic Resistance: Phages Can Transfer It In Chicken Meat

Saturday, May 23, 2015 - 23:40 in Health & Medicine

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise and they pose a global threat to public health. Common antibiotics are often ineffective in treating infectious diseases because pathogens acquire resistance genes. These antimicrobial resistance genes are obtained in different ways. There are different explanations for how resistances are transferred and a now study found phages - viruses that exclusively infect bacteria - in chicken meat that are able to transfer antimicrobial resistance to bacteria.  Phages do not directly pose a risk to humans because they can only infect bacteria. No other cells or organisms can be infected. read more

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