Who knew that we could be getting antibiotic resistant genes from cow manure. Well the findings, reported in mBio®, which is an online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, reported that cow manure could be a potential source for new types of antibiotic resistance genes.
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| Cow manure has antibiotic resistance genes |
This happens in a very simple process. First the cow does its business. Then this manure gets taken to fields and used as a fertilizer. The new types of antibiotic resistance genes then transfer to bacteria in the soil, where the food is grown and this food ends up on our tables.
So far thousands of antibiotic resistance genes have been identified, such as E. coli. This could be dangerous, because in a hospital scenario a virus that becomes resistant is not good and can cause lots of trouble, including death. For the most part these antibiotic resistant genes aren't harmful in fact they can help us by boosting up our immune system. But research is being done to understand and prevent these antibiotic resistance genes from entering hospital or clinics. "We're hoping this study will open up a larger field of surveillance, to start looking at new types of resistance before they show up in the clinic," says Handelsman.
As we have learned in microbiology, bacteria is adapting and becoming resistant very rapidly to many of our antibiotics, to the point that they aren’t working anymore. This article shows how important the research for antibiotic resistance genes is, because we need to do something about these resistant bacterias.
The author did a very good job at explaining the new discovery of cow manure having antibiotic resistance genes. This is groundbreaking, because perhaps other animals that we eat also have antibiotic resistance genes. All this animals could be contributing to a super bacteria. (antibiotic resistance genes bacteria)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140422084928.htm
It seems that cows are causing quite some trouble first they are filling up the atmosphere with methane gas from their farts and now they are making microbes in the soil immune to antibiotics by passing on antibiotic resistant genes from their manure. This seems like it could possibly have some major effects on hospital patients if they were to get an infection from one of the antibiotic resistant bacteria in the soil. Also this could lead to the agricultural business turning towards chemical fertilizers instead of cow manure which a more natural fertilizer. This could lead to some changes in farming procedure that can prove to be costly and probably increase the price on produce. This does seem to be doing some good and not all bad. Like you mentioned that some of these antibiotic resistant genes aren’t harmful and actually boosts our immune system. It defiantly looks like more research needs to go into this field because it can either lead to new antibiotic resistant microbes or it can help us boost our immune system.
ReplyDeleteThese cows are at it again. Before I started thinking of the anti biotic part, I was thinking that it is very unsanitary to be using cow manure to fertilize our food crops. There is a plus and delta about this topic such as it can give you E. coli which is a very dangerous virus, but the manure also can strengthen your and or our immune system. The resistant bacteria needs to be controlled because it may spread through our food and to other animals (cows) which is going to cause more and more bacteria which can be very harmful. Even though it may boost our immune system which fight our sicknesses it won't really matter because the bacteria will just keep spreading through us human beings and our environment.
ReplyDeleteAs stated before in the previous comments this idea that microbes being in the fertilizer we use to fertilize crops and other important agriculture. In class it seems like cows are a big contributor to us, we looked at their methane contribution with farts, then we looked at their diverse microbial economy in milk, and last the microbes in their waste. When someone immediately puts down fertilizer it surrounds the area with a horrible stench of manure, how could the waste of a animal be so beneficial, this article examines that idea, it displays both the positive microbes and the negative microbes including E. Coli. Perhaps the only thing you could do to improve your analysis would be to review the article more, what possible things could they have done better, what research methods did they utilize to produce the results they claim?
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