Innocuous intestinal bacteria may be reservoir for resistance

ORLANDO – May 25, 2006 – "Harmless" bacteria in the digestive tracts of dairy cows, may not be so harmless after all. They may be a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes that can be transferred to more harmful, disease-causing bacteria, according to research presented today at the 106th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Orlando, Florida.

"There is concern that veterinary therapeutic usage of antibiotics in animals is responsible for the emergence of drug-resistant Salmonella. For dairy farms recently surveyed in Georgia, there was no association found between antibiotic use and isolation of multi-drug resistant Salmonella. Where does the drug resistance in Salmonella originate?" says Susan Sanchez of the University of Georgia, who conducted the study with other researchers from the University of Georgia and the Universidad Complutense of Madrid.