Captive-bred wallabies may carry antibiotic resistant bacteria into wild populations

Species recovery programs may spread antibiotic resistant genes to wild populations

2013-05-23

(Press-News.org) Endangered brush-tail rock wallabies raised in captive breeding programs carry antibiotic resistance genes in their gut bacteria and may be able to transmit these genes into wild populations, according to research published May 22 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Michelle Power and colleagues from Macquarie University in New South Wales, Australia.

Brush-tail rock wallabies are currently being raised in species recovery programs and restored to the wild to bolster populations of this endangered species. Here, researchers found that nearly half of fecal samples from wallabies raised in these programs contained bacterial genes that encode resistance to streptomycin, spectinomycin and trimethoprim. None of these genes were detected in samples from five wild populations of wallabies. The authors add, "How these genes made their way into the wallaby microbes is unknown, but it seems likely that water or feed may have acted as a conduit for bacteria carrying these genes."

Previous research shows that proximity to humans can increase animals' exposure to antibiotic resistance genes and the organisms that carry them. Antibiotic resistant bacteria have been reported in the wild from chimpanzees in Uganda, Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and a wide range of fish, birds and mammals. According to the researchers, their findings highlight the potential for genes and pathogens from human sources to be spread. Power says, "We found that antibiotic resistance genes from human pathogens have been picked up by endangered rock wallabies in a breeding program, and may spread into the wild when the wallabies are released."

INFORMATION:

Citation: Power ML, Emery S, Gillings MR (2013) Into the Wild: Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Determinants via a Species Recovery Program. PLOS ONE 8(5): e63017. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063017

Financial Disclosure: The funding for this work was provided by the Ian Potter foundation and the Australian Research Council LP110200569. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

PLEASE LINK TO THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL goes live after the embargo ends): http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063017

Disclaimer: This press release refers to upcoming articles in PLOS ONE. The releases have been provided by the article authors and/or journal staff. Any opinions expressed in these are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLOS. PLOS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.

About PLOS ONE: PLOS ONE is the first journal of primary research from all areas of science to employ a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLOS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.

All works published in PLOS ONE are Open Access. Everything is immediately available—to read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise use—without cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed. For more information about PLOS ONE relevant to journalists, bloggers and press officers, including details of our press release process and our embargo policy, see the everyONE blog at http://everyone.plos.org/media.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New cave-dwelling arachnids discovered in Brazil

2013-05-23

Two new species of cave-dwelling short-tailed whipscorpions have been discovered in northeastern Brazil, and are described in research published May 22 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Adalberto Santos, from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) and colleagues. The reddish-brown short-tailed whipscorpions inhabit cool, humid limestone caves in an otherwise arid region. Both new species, Rowlandius ubajara and Rowlandius potiguara, were found deep within the limestone caves, which are also home to bats. Bat guano and seed deposits harbor springtails and ...

Baby's life saved with groundbreaking 3-D printed device that restored his breathing

2013-05-23

Ann Arbor, Mich. – Every day, their baby stopped breathing, his collapsed bronchus blocking the crucial flow of air to his lungs. April and Bryan Gionfriddo watched helplessly, just praying that somehow the dire predictions weren't true. "Quite a few doctors said he had a good chance of not leaving the hospital alive," says April Gionfriddo, about her now 20-month-old son, Kaiba. "At that point, we were desperate. Anything that would work, we would take it and run with it." They found hope at the University of Michigan, where a new, bioresorbable device that could help ...

Fetch, boy! Study shows homes with dogs have more types of bacteria

2013-05-23

New research from North Carolina State University and the University of Colorado shows that households with dogs are home to more types of bacteria – including bacteria that are rarely found in households that do not have dogs. The finding is part of a larger study to improve our understanding of the microscopic life forms that live in our homes. "We wanted to know what variables influence the microbial ecosystems in our homes, and the biggest difference we've found so far is whether you own a dog," says Dr. Rob Dunn, an associate professor of biology at NC State and ...

Calorie information in fast food restaurants used by 40 percent of 9-18 year olds when making food choices

2013-05-23

A new study published online today (Thursday) in the Journal of Public Health has found that of young people who visited fast food or chain restaurants in the U.S. in 2010, girls and youth who were obese were more likely to use calorie information given in the restaurants to inform their food choices. It also found that young people eating at fast food or chain restaurants twice a week or more were half as likely to use calorie information as those eating there once a week or less. Childhood obesity has tripled in recent decades. One potential contributing factor is fast ...

Enzyme-activating antibodies revealed as marker for most severe form of rheumatoid arthritis

2013-05-23

In a series of lab experiments designed to unravel the workings of a key enzyme widely considered a possible trigger of rheumatoid arthritis, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that in the most severe cases of the disease, the immune system makes a unique subset of antibodies that have a disease-promoting role. Reporting in the journal Science Translational Medicine online May 22, the Johns Hopkins team describes how it found the novel antibodies to peptidylarginine deiminase 4, or PAD4, in blood samples from people with aggressive inflammation and connective tissue ...

Mega genomes of spruce species decoded

2013-05-23

Canadian and Swedish scientists today released genome sequences of two of the most economically important forest trees in the world. Conifers supply raw materials for the Canadian forestry industry, which accounted for $23.7 billion in Canada's economy in 2011. Gross output of the forest sector in Sweden in 2009 was $29.7 billion. At 20-30 billion base-pairs and up to 10 times larger than the human genome, the white spruce genome, published in Bioinformatics, and the Norway spruce genome, published in Nature, are also the largest genome sequence assemblies to date. ...

NIH researchers conduct first genomic survey of human skin fungal diversity

2013-05-23

While humans have harnessed the power of yeast to ferment bread and beer, the function of yeast or other types of fungi that live in and on the human body is not well understood. In the first study of human fungal skin diversity, National Institutes of Health researchers sequenced the DNA of fungi at skin sites of healthy adults to define the normal populations across the skin and to provide a framework for investigating fungal skin conditions. Human skin surfaces are complex ecosystems for microorganisms, including fungi, bacteria and viruses, which are known collectively ...

Penn study shows how immune system peacefully co-exists with 'good' bacteria

2013-05-23

PHILADELPHIA - The human gut is loaded with commensal bacteria – "good" microbes that, among other functions, help the body digest food. The gastrointestinal tract contains literally trillions of such cells, and yet the immune system seemingly turns a blind eye. However, in several chronic human diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), HIV/AIDS, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, the immune system attacks these normally beneficial bacteria, resulting in chronic inflammation and contributing to disease progression. Now, researchers may finally understand ...

Slowing the aging process -- only with antibiotics

2013-05-23

VIDEO: EPFL scientists have revealed the mechanism, hidden deep within cell mitochondria, that is responsible for making organisms age. Nematodes treated with antibiotics designed to disrupt this mechanism lived longer and... Click here for more information. Why is it that within a homogeneous population of the same species, some individuals live three times as long as others? This question has stumped scientists for centuries. Now, EPFL researchers led by Johan Auwerx ...

Fish oil supplements may help fight against Type 2 diabetes

2013-05-23

Chevy Chase, MD—Widely-used fish oil supplements modestly increase amounts of a hormone that is associated with lower risk of diabetes and heart disease, according to a study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Fish oil supplements, also called omega 3 fatty acid capsules, raise levels of adiponectin in the bloodstream. Adiponectin is an important hormone that has beneficial effects on metabolic processes like glucose regulation and the modulation of inflammation. In long-term human studies, higher ...

Muscle-healing 'Ally' turns 'Enemy': A novel immune cell subset that controls muscle regeneration and ossification in FOP

Waterpipe smoking can cause carbon monoxide poisoning even after brief use, during outdoor smoking, or through indoor secondhand exposure

Impact of Japan's indoor smoke-free laws on the prevalence of smoke-free establishments

New study fills research gap in food safety to better protect pregnant people from Listeria

[Press-News.org] Captive-bred wallabies may carry antibiotic resistant bacteria into wild populations
Species recovery programs may spread antibiotic resistant genes to wild populations

Captive-bred wallabies may carry antibiotic resistant bacteria into wild populations

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: