- Warning: Antibiotic-Resistant “Superbugs” Are Being Passed Between Dogs and Cats and Their Owners SciTechDaily
- Dogs and cats ‘passing on antibiotic-resistant superbugs to owners’ The Independent
- Staff MRSA carriage and environmental contamination by other ‘superbugs’ found in Portuguese veterinary practices Phys.org
- Urgent warning to all pet owners over ‘new deadly bug’ you can catch from your furry friends… The US Sun
- PETS might be passing on super-strength bugs to you Daily Mail
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Tag Archives: antibioticresistant
Faecal transplants to be offered to hundreds with antibiotic-resistant superbug | UK News
Hundreds of people with a hard-to-treat superbug are to be offered faecal transplants to tackle their infections.
A faecal microbiota transplant (FMT) involves taking healthy bacteria “in a mixture of prepared processed stool from a healthy donor” to the intestine of another person.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says the process should be considered for patients who have had two or more treatments for Clostridium difficile (C.diff) without success.
Treating these people with gut bacteria taken from a healthy person’s poo can help restore healthy gut bacteria, Nice said.
C.diff is a type of bacteria that can cause diarrhoea, and it often affects people who have been taking antibiotics.
The bug can usually be treated with a different type of antibiotic, but it is sometimes referred to as a “superbug” due to its resistance to treatment in some instances.
Nice said clinical trials have shown FMT treatment is significantly better than antibiotics alone at resolving a stubborn C.diff infection, and treatment using this method could save the NHS thousands of pounds.
Patients may need to take fewer antibiotics and have reported a better quality of life after treatment, it added.
‘Innovative’
The FMT section can be swallowed within a pill, or it can be delivered through a tube inserted directly into the stomach through the nose, or alternatively be deposited directly into the colon, also through a tube.
Mark Chapman, interim director of medical technology at Nice, said: “There is currently a need for an effective treatment of C.diff in people who have had two or more rounds of antibiotics.
“Our committee’s recommendation of this innovative treatment will provide another tool for health professionals to use in the fight against this infection, while at the same time balancing the need to offer the best care with value for money.
“Use of this treatment will also help reduce the reliance on antibiotics and in turn reduce the chances of antimicrobial resistance, which supports NICE’s guidance on good antimicrobial stewardship.”
Study
Nice said it made its decision to push ahead with FMT after reviewing evidence from five trials of 274 adults, which showed more C.diff infections were resolved with FMT, than antibiotic treatment, in four of the trials – and there was no difference in the other.
The data also showed the treatment can resolve up to 94% of infections.
FMT can be considerably cheaper than antibiotics if given as an oral capsule – saving more than £8,000; it can save hundreds of pounds if given as a colonoscopy, but it is more expensive when given as an enema.
Nice has estimated that 450 to 500 people in England could be treated using FMT for multiple recurrences of C.diff infections each year.
It said a strict donor screening programme should be in place and that treatments should be manufactured in accordance with human medicine regulations.
All donors will be been screened in advance to ensure the stool provided is healthy and tested for a wide array of viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, which also includes screening for COVID-19.
Dogs that eat raw meat may excrete antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could be passed to humans
Dogs that are fed raw meat are more likely to excrete the antibiotic-resistant bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) in their faeces, vets have warned.
Prior research has shown that there also is potential for the E. Coli to be passed from the dogs to their human owners through normal, every day interaction.
Researchers at the University of Bristol suggest that pet owners who are raw feeding their dogs should take extra precautions when cleaning up their mess.
They also suggest that the fashionable diet is not the safest choice for a domesticated dog for this reason.
Matthew Avison, Professor of Molecular Bacteriology from the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, said: ‘We should do everything we can to reduce the circulation of critically important antibiotic-resistant E. coli and other bacteria.
‘Our research adds to the increasing evidence that not feeding raw meat to dogs may help in that objective.’
Raw feeding is as it sounds – feeding your pet raw ingredients, rather than the traditional cooked food that is more commonly available (stock image)
Researchers at the University of Bristol suggest that pet owners who are raw feeding their dogs should take extra precautions when cleaning up their mess, as they are more likely excrete the antibiotic-resistant bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) in their faeces
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Professor Avison added: ‘Our studies show that dogs, whether puppies or adults, are more likely to carry antibiotic resistant bacteria in their intestines if they are fed raw meat than if they are fed kibble and other processed dog food.
‘This adds to the increasing body of peer-reviewed evidence that raw meat feeding is associated with various bacterial infectious diseases risks in dogs.
‘I cannot comment on any potential benefits associated with raw meat feeding but equally I have not seen any evidence that good quality processed dog food fails to provide good quality nutrition for dogs.
‘On that basis, I choose to feed my two dogs, Wilma and Doris, good quality kibble.
‘Others should be free to make their own choice but should do so in the knowledge that raw feeding comes with some potential risks.’
E. coli are bacteria that generally live in the intestines of healthy people and animals.
Infections can occur after coming into contact with the faeces of humans or animals, or by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water.
Symptoms of an E.coli infection include bloody diarrhoea, stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting.
In rare cases sufferers can develop hemolytic uremic syndrome, a disease that affects the kidneys and blood clotting functions of infected people.
The study, published today in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, collected data from 600 adult dogs and their owners.
Owners completed questionnaires about their dogs, the dogs’ diets and environment, and provided faecal samples from their dogs.
The samples were then analysed for the presence of E. coli, while risk factor analyses were conducted using their questionnaire results.
The researchers wanted to determine any links between E. coli detection and lifestyle factors or environments reported in the owner survey.
While raw feeding was a strong risk factor for dogs living in the countryside, those for city-dwelling dogs were more complicated.
The vets claim this could reflect the variety of lifestyles and exposures among city dogs, as swimming in rivers was found to be a weak risk factor.
Professor Avison said: ‘Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are everywhere, but some antibiotics are considered critically important for use in humans.
‘We have shown that dogs fed raw meat are more likely to carry bacteria resistant to these important medicines.
‘This doesn’t mean that the animal, or the owner, will become sick.
‘E. coli is a widespread bacterium that is found in the intestines of all humans and animals.
‘However it is a common cause of many diseases including urinary tract infection and can cause serious illness including sepsis if it spreads to other parts of the body.’
In a study published last month, the researchers concluded that raw feeding is associated with carriage of antibiotic resistant E. coli in the faeces of dogs as young as 16 weeks, regardless of the length of time spent on the diet (stock image)
Results of a study of 16-week-old puppies and their owners, and associations with risk factors for carriage of E. coli resistant to at least one test antibiotic
These results support those obtained in another study that was published last month in the journal One Health.
The team recruited 223 16-week-old puppies and their owners for similar risk factor and faecal sample analyses.
They concluded that raw feeding is associated with carriage of antibiotic resistant E. coli in young dogs, regardless of the length of time spent on the diet.
It was also found that the bacteria carried by puppies are shared with humans.
Kristen Reyher, co-author and Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Population Health at the Bristol Veterinary School, said: ‘We know humans and animals share bacteria with one another, so what we find in your pet may well also be in you.
‘Pet owners should be encouraged to practice good hygiene and not feeding raw food to your dog can be part of this,
‘We can all do our part to decrease antibiotic resistance and its terrible effects on both human and animal health.’
Antibiotic-resistant superbug found in pigs and humans: study
Scientists studying the C. difficile superbug say that its antibiotic-resistant genes have been found in pigs and humans, meaning that not only is transmission of the bacteria possible on a wider scale, but the genes that resist antibiotics themselves might be able to spread through an animal vector to humans.
Clostridioides difficile, or C. difficile, is a bacterium that causes gut infection, inducing symptoms such as diarrhea and inflammation of the colon, and is resistant to numerous antibiotics. Some strains have genes that allow them to cause extreme damage, and it can be life-threatening, particularly in elderly patients who are receiving antibiotics for other issues.
It is also considered one of the world’s most significant antibiotic resistance threats. In 2017, C. difficile caused more than 223,000 cases, 12,800 deaths and cost US$1 billion in health-care costs in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A Canadian study found that between 2009 and 2015, more than 20,600 adults reported C. difficile infection developed in a health-care setting.
“Our finding of multiple and shared resistance genes indicate that C. difficile is a reservoir of antimicrobial resistance genes that can be exchanged between animals and humans”, Dr. Semeh Bejaoui, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen and one of the authors of the study, said in a press release. “This alarming discovery suggests that resistance to antibiotics can spread more widely than previously thought, and confirms links in the resistance chain leading from farm animals to humans.”
C. difficile actually lives in many people’s intestines as part of the regular balance of the digestive system, but its growth is normally kept in check by other bacteria.
The dangerous side of C. difficile can be unlocked by a regular tool of the health-care system: antibiotics.
When a person takes antibiotics to deal with an infection, the medication destroys some of the other bacteria in the gut as well as the infection that it was targeting — and since C. difficile is resistant to antibiotics, if the balance of the intestinal system is thrown off, C. difficile can grow out of control and attack the lining of the intestines. Having recently taken antibiotics is the biggest risk factor for developing an inflammation or infection caused by C. difficile.
Researchers wanted to identify if strains of C. difficile known to have antibiotic-resisting genes as well as toxin-producing ones were present in pigs as well as humans, something that could indicate that zoonotic transmission helps C. difficile evolve into more dangerous forms and spread faster.
In the study, which is being presented this week at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases conference in Portugal, researchers looked at samples of C. difficile across 14 pig farms in Denmark and compared those samples to those from Danish hospital patients.
They looked at stool samples from 514 pigs collected in 2020 and 2021, and found that 54 pigs had C. difficile. They then used genetic sequencing to isolate strains that had an increased amount of toxin-producing and drug-resistant genes. All of the samples from the 54 pigs had the toxin-producing genes.
Researchers compared the results from the pigs to 934 isolates from human patients who had been struck with a C.difficile infection in that time period.
Thirteen sequence types matched between the pigs and human patients, with an animal-associated strain, ST11, being the most common. In 16 cases, the ST11 strain was identical in the humans and animals.
Out of the 54 pig samples, 38 had at least one gene resistant to antibiotics, and in general, the resistance applied to a class of antibiotics that are commonly used to treat severe bacterial infections.
Researchers believe that this indicates that the use of antibiotics in farm animals is having the unintended side effect of producing more hypervirulent strains of C. difficile which could be capable of transmitting to humans through zoonotic transmission.
“The overuse of antibiotics in human medicine and as cheap production tools on farms is undoing our ability to cure bacterial infections,” Bejaoui said.
Experts have flagged the issue of antibiotics being overused in farm animals before — in August 2021, the UN put out a joint statement with the Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance calling for a significant reduction of antimicrobials in food production and farm animals, warning that “the world is rapidly heading towards a tipping point where the antimicrobials relied on to treat infections in humans, animals and plants will no longer be effective.”
Bejaoui added that researchers were concerned to find some strains of C. difficile had many extra genes resistant against antibiotics which already did not affect the bacterium.
“Of particular concern is the large reservoir of genes conferring resistance to aminoglycosides, a class of antibiotics to which C. difficile is intrinsically resistant – they are not needed for resistance in this species. C. difficile thus plays a role in spreading these genes to other susceptible species,” she said.
“This study provides more evidence on the evolutionary pressure connected with the use of antimicrobials in animal husbandry, which selects for dangerously resistant human pathogens. This highlights the importance of adopting a more comprehensive approach, for the management of C. difficile infection, in order to consider all possible routes of dissemination.”
One of the big limitations of the study is that while scientists found similar strains of this bacterium in both pigs and humans, they were not able to determine a direction of potential transmission — i.e., whether this bacterium can jump from animals to humans, humans to animals, or both.
“The fact that some of the strains in both human and animal isolates were identical suggests that they could be shared between groups, but until we perform deeper phylogenetic analyses we cannot determine the direction of the transmission, which could also be bidirectional, with the bacteria being continuously exchanged and expanded in the community and farms,” Bejaoui said.
Health officials issue warning over an ‘extremely antibiotic-resistant’ bug mainly affecting gay men
Health officials issue warning over an ‘extremely antibiotic-resistant’ strain of shigella that is mainly affecting gay and bisexual men
- Gay and bisexual men warned about infectious sexually transmitted infection
- Just 16 cases spotted over 17 months in UK but 47 detected in last four months
- Health chiefs worried about treatment-resistant strain and spread in community
Gay and bisexual men were today warned about the rapid spread of a superbug that is being spread through sex.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) bosses have spotted a huge spike in cases of an ‘extremely’ antibiotic-resistant version of shigella sonnei.
The gut infection can cause diarrhoea, stomach cramps and a fever. Some patients will need to be hospitalised.
Forty-seven cases of the infection were reported in the four months from September to December. For comparison, just 16 were logged over the previous 17 months, from April 2020 to August 2021.
Shigella is endemic in England, and triggers thousands of infections each year.
Health chiefs have been tracking the particular strain that has prompted the warning since 2018.
Effective treatment options are ‘limited’ for the strain, the UKHSA warned today.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said there has been an increase in cases of Shigella sonnei, a gut infection that causes diarrhoea, stomach cramps and a fever. Pictured: Enterobacteriaceae bacteria, which Shigella is a species of
It has become resistant to quinolones and azithromycin, two of the most common types of antibiotics once used to kill it off.
The infection is caused by bacteria found in faeces, which is usually spread through sex involving anal contact.
It can also be transmitted through unwashed hands, if infected people contaminate surfaces for others to touch.
Dr Gauri Godbole, consultant medical microbiologist at UKHSA, added: ‘Practising good hygiene after sex is really important to keep you and your partners safe.
‘Avoid oral sex immediately after anal sex, and change condoms between anal or oral sex and wash your hands with soap after sexual contact.
‘It’s important gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men don’t dismiss their symptoms and speak to their GP or sexual health clinic, mentioning shigella, if they are unwell.’
He advised men with shigella to get tested for other STIs, including HIV, as they may have been exposed to other infections.
Infected people should stay hydrated, rest and not have sex until a week after their last symptoms, Dr Godbole said.
They should also avoid all spas, swimming, hot tubs and sharing towels, and avoid preparing food for other people until a week after symptoms stop.
Three of the cases had recently travelled to the UK from Spain or Turkey.
Buit is not just men who have sex with men that officials are worried about in regards to the spread of the Shigella strain.
In a briefing note in December, the UKHSA also warned about spillover of the virus in food handlers and carers, who have triggered outbreaks across the globe by continuing to work when unwell.
Symptoms usually start within four days of being exposed to the infection, and its symptoms can be mistaken for food poisoning.
Antibiotic-resistant infections are killing millions, scientists say in Lancet study
MRSA bacteria
DTKUTOO | Getty Images
Drug-resistant bacteria killed almost 1.3 million people in 2019, scientists have estimated — more than either HIV or malaria.
Researchers also estimated that antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections played some role in 4.95 million deaths in the same year.
The findings of the study — which was funded by the U.K. government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — were published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet on Wednesday.
The WHO has described antibiotic resistance as “one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today,” and said that although the phenomenon occurs naturally, misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is accelerating the process.
Antibiotics are sometimes needed to treat or prevent bacterial infections. But the overuse and misuse of antibiotics — such as in the treatment of viral infections like colds, which they are not effective against— has helped some bacteria evolve to become resistant to them.
This resistance is threatening our ability to treat common illnesses, leading to higher medical costs, longer hospital stays and increased mortality. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year, with more than 35,000 people dying as a result.
A growing number of illnesses, including pneumonia, tuberculosis and gonorrhoea, are becoming more difficult to treat as antibiotics are becoming a less effective tool against the bacteria that cause them.
‘Major global health threat’
Authors of the research paper describe bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as “one of the leading public health threats of the 21st century,” adding that their study presented the first global estimates of the burden it was adding to populations worldwide.
The study looked at 471 million individual records from 204 countries and territories, and analyzed data from existing studies, hospitals and other sources. Its estimates were based on the number of deaths arising from and associated with bacterial AMR for 23 pathogens (organisms that cause disease) and 88 pathogen-drug combinations.
Lower respiratory infections like pneumonia, which were responsible for 400,000 deaths, were the “most burdensome infectious syndrome” relating to bacterial AMR, researchers said. Bloodstream infections and intra-abdominal infections were the next most prevalent drug-resistant diseases that led to deaths in 2019. Combined, these three syndromes accounted for almost 80% of deaths attributable to AMR.
E.coli and MRSA
E. coli and MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) were among the drug resistant bacteria that led to the most deaths, the study found. So-called “superbug” MRSA directly accounted for more than 100,000 deaths during the analysis period, researchers found.
The six pathogens identified in the study as causing the most deaths from AMR have been identified by the WHO as priority pathogens, researchers said.
Globally, 16.4 deaths in every 100,000 were attributable to drug resistant bacteria in 2019, according to the study. In western sub-Saharan Africa, where AMR accounted for the highest proportion of deaths in the world, that rate rose to 27.3 per 100,000 deaths.
Meanwhile, deaths associated with, but not directly caused by, bacterial AMR accounted for 64 in every 100,000 deaths in 2019, researchers said.
“Our findings clearly show that drug resistance in each of these leading pathogens is a major global health threat that warrants more attention, funding, capacity building, research and development, and pathogen-specific priority setting from the broader global health community,” the scientists said in their paper.
Antibiotic investment ‘essential’
The study’s authors called for stringent intervention strategies, many of which were linked to antibiotic use, to address the threat posed by drug resistant bacteria. Suggestions made in the paper included reducing human exposure to antibiotics in meat, minimizing the unnecessary use of antibiotics — for example, in treating viral infections — and preventing the need for antibiotics through vaccination programs and vaccine development.
Researchers also said it was “essential” to maintain investment in the development of new antibiotics.
“In the past few decades, investments have been small compared with those in other public health issues with similar or less impact,” they said.
The study’s authors acknowledged that their research had some limitations, including sparsity of data from low- and middle-income countries, which could lead to an underestimation of the AMR burden in certain regions.
“Efforts to build laboratory infrastructure are paramount to addressing the large and universal burden of AMR, by improving the management of individual patients and the quality of data in local and global surveillance,” the report’s authors said.
“Enhanced infrastructure would also expand AMR research in the future to evaluate the indirect effects of AMR … Identifying strategies that can work to reduce the burden of bacterial AMR is an urgent priority.”
New study shows microplastics turn into ‘hubs’ for pathogens, antibiotic-resistant bacteria
It’s estimated that an average-sized wastewater treatment plant serving roughly 400,000 residents will discharge up to 2,000,000 microplastic particles into the environment each day. Yet, researchers are still learning the environmental and human health impact of these ultra-fine plastic particles, less than 5 millimeters in length, found in everything from cosmetics, toothpaste and clothing microfibers, to our food, air and drinking water.
Now, researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have shown that ubiquitous microplastics can become ‘hubs’ for antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens to grow once they wash down household drains and enter wastewater treatment plants—forming a slimy layer of buildup, or biofilm, on their surface that allows pathogenic microorganisms and antibiotic waste to attach and comingle.
In findings published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters, researchers found certain strains of bacteria elevated antibiotic resistance by up to 30 times while living on microplastic biofilms that can form inside activated sludge units at municipal wastewater treatment plants.
“A number of recent studies have focused on the negative impacts that millions of tons of microplastic waste a year is having on our freshwater and ocean environments, but until now the role of microplastics in our towns’ and cities’ wastewater treatment processes has largely been unknown,” said Mengyan Li, associate professor of chemistry and environmental science at NJIT and the study’s corresponding author. “These wastewater treatment plants can be hotspots where various chemicals, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens converge and what our study shows is that microplastics can serve as their carriers, posing imminent risks to aquatic biota and human health if they bypass the water treatment process.”
“Most wastewater treatment plants are not designed for the removal of microplastics, so they are constantly being released into the receiving environment,” added Dung Ngoc Pham, NJIT Ph.D. candidate and first author of the study. “Our goal was to investigate whether or not microplastics are enriching antibiotic-resistant bacteria from activated sludge at municipal wastewater treatment plants, and if so, learn more about the microbial communities involved.”
In their study, the team collected batches of sludge samples from three domestic wastewater treatment plants in northern New Jersey, inoculating the samples in the lab with two widespread commercial microplastics—polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS). The team used a combination of quantitative PCR and next-generation sequencing techniques to identify the species of bacteria that tend to grow on the microplastics, tracking genetic changes of the bacteria along the way.
The analysis revealed that three genes in particular—sul1, sul2 and intI1— known to aid resistance to common antibiotics, sulfonamides, were found to be up to 30 times greater on the microplastic biofilms than in the lab’s control tests using sand biofilms after just three days.
When the team spiked the samples with the antibiotic, sulfamethoxazole (SMX), they found it further amplified the antibiotic resistance genes by up to 4.5-fold.
“Previously, we thought the presence of antibiotics would be necessary to enhance antibiotic-resistance genes in these microplastic-associated bacteria, but it seems microplastics can naturally allow for uptake of these resistance genes on their own.” said Pham. “The presence of antibiotics does have a significant multiplier effect however.”
Eight different species of bacteria were found highly enriched on the microplastics. Among these species, the team observed two emerging human pathogens typically linked with respiratory infection, Raoultella ornithinolytica and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, frequently hitchhiking on the microplastic biofilms.
The team say the most common strain found on the microplastics by far, Novosphingobium pokkalii, is likely a key initiator in forming the sticky biofilm that attracts such pathogens—as it proliferates it may contribute to the deterioration of the plastic and expand the biofilm. At the same time, the team’s study highlighted the role of the gene, intI1, a mobile genetic element chiefly responsible for enabling the exchange of antibiotic resistance genes among the microplastic-bound microbes.
“We might think of microplastics as tiny beads, but they provide an enormous surface area for microbes to reside,” explained Li. “When these microplastics enter the wastewater treatment plant and mix in with sludge, bacteria like Novosphingobium can accidentally attach to the surface and secrete glue-like extracellular substances. As other bacteria attach to the surface and grow, they can even swap DNA with each other. This is how the antibiotic resistance genes are being spread among the community.”
“We have evidence that the bacteria developed resistance to other antibiotics this way as well, such as aminoglycoside, beta-lactam and trimethoprim,” added Pham.
Now, Li says the lab is further studying the role of Novosphingobium in biofilm formation on microplastics. The team is also seeking to better understand the extent to which such pathogen-carrying microplastics may be bypassing water treatment processes, by studying resistance of microplastic biofilms during wastewater treatment with disinfectants such as UV light and chlorine.
“Some states are already considering new regulations on the use of microplastics in consumer products. This study raises calls for further investigation on microplastic biofilms in our wastewater systems and development of effective means for removing microplastics in aquatic environments,” said Li.
Microplastic sizes in Hudson-Raritan Estuary and coastal ocean revealed
More information:
Dung Ngoc Pham et al, Microplastics as hubs enriching antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens in municipal activated sludge, Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.hazl.2021.100014
Dung Ngoc Pham et al, Microplastics as hubs enriching antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens in municipal activated sludge, Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.hazl.2021.100014
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