Cow manure ‘contains new antibiotic resistance genes’

Researchers in the US have found that cow manure contains antibiotic resistance genes that could have clinical applications in future.

Led by a team from Yale University, the research saw a powerful screening-plus-sequencing approach used to identify 80 unique and functional antibiotic resistance genes in manure from dairy cows.

The genes made a laboratory strain of E. coli bacteria resistant to one of four types of antibiotics – beta-lactams such as penicillin, aminoglycosides like kanamycin, tetracycline and chloramphenicol.

None of these genes currently affect human patients, but the discovery opens up the potential for new areas of study, allowing new superbugs to be combated before they emerge.

Jo Handelsman, senior study author and microbiologist at Yale, said: "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."

This comes at a time when the UK and global health communities are looking for new ways of combating the development of antibiotic resistance, which is becoming a growing global health problem.