Antibiotic resistant bacteria proliferate in agricultural soils

Infectious diseases kill roughly 13 million people worldwide, annually, a toll that continues to rise, aided and abetted by resistance genes. Now a study, published in the March Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy finds reservoirs of resistance in agricultural soils. These contained more diverse populations of drug resistant bacteria, with greater levels of resistance, than composted and forest soils. Vegetable garden soil alone harbored multi-drug resistant bacteria, and also had the highest level of resistance to three major antibiotic classes.

Read the whole article on Physorg

More from Physorg