Team tracks antibiotic resistance from swine farms to groundwater

Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor
217-333-5802; diya@uiuc.edu

Released 8/21/07

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The routine use of antibiotics in swine production can have unintended consequences, with antibiotic resistance genes sometimes leaking from waste lagoons into groundwater.

In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois report that some genes found in hog waste lagoons are transferred – “like batons” – from one bacterial species to another. The researchers found that this migration across species and into new environments sometimes dilutes – and sometimes amplifies – genes conferring antibiotic resistance.