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Seagulls Spreading Resistant Bacteria On Beaches
bs0d3 writes "Dr. Patrice Nordmann has disclosed the results of a small study that looked for resistant bacteria in seagull poop landing on Miami Beach in Florida. During April 2010, they collected 52 stool samples and found within them 83 isolates of gut bacteria such as E. coli. Wired's Maryn McKenna writes, 'Seven of the E. coli carried genes that direct production of CTX-M enzymes, a troublesome resistance factor that protects bacteria from the very broad category of drugs called extended-spectrum beta-lactams and that has recently spread worldwide. In addition, 14 of the E. coli were also carrying the gene for the CMY-2 enzyme, which confers the same ESBL resistance on Salmonella. Nine of the isolates were multi-drug resistant.' This has led some scientists to the conclusion that this is one avenue these bacterias are taking in human infections worldwide. The resistance factors identified in the seagull feces match ones that cause highly resistant infections in humans, and correlate with data collected on beaches in Portugal, Sweden, and France."
Unfortunately, not quite as simple as that. Seagulls like to crap on your hair, if no one points it out to you then there's a chance you could get infected while running your fingers through your hair and then licking them.
I guess I should stop hunting these free-range seagulls for food. I've heard the farm-raised variety is tastier anyway, but I haven't yet found a cheap supplier.
Disclaimer: I work for a major fast food chain...
Does having a witty signature really indicate normality?
Open-air landfills, leftovers, old prescriptions, and seagulls. Yep.
With the exception of earthquakes and meteor strikes, all problems can be traced to human overpopulation.
I've never had the desire to lick my hands after running them through my hair....nor have I ever been sh1t on by a bird. On the other hand my car has taken a pounding from time to time. Of course, I don't lick my hands after I rub them all over my car either. Hmmmm, come to think of it, I never have rubbed my hands all over my car.
"That's right...I said it."
Not only misspelled, but it's the wrong word for the job.
Humans (for now) working together collaborate.
Data from disparate sources corroborate.
Did the spell-checker take the weekend off?
The news isn't that. The news is that bacteria with some degree of antibiotic resistance are so common that they are showing up in a logical; but not closely linked to hospitals, livestock feedlots, or overmedicated humans, disease vector...
You can find bacteria pretty much wherever you want, and feces usually has its share of pathogens; but time was when you had to go actively hunting, and in the right places, to find antibiotic resistance at any significant level.
Where did the seagulls pick up the bacteria in the first place? I thought these bacteria were found only in hospitals. Maybe we should be more careful with our medical waste and not dump it unprocessed in landfills.
Both comments are equally ignorant. It is arguable that we are the universe attempting to understand itself. That is perhaps one of the highest possible destinies of space time. That said, most human beings barely aspire to know more than which way to put their underwear on (that and how to mate, endlessly.) We only hate seagulls and rats because they are intelligent and are successful in human shaped environments.
Let's get clear about this. The existence of resistant bacteria is the result of indiscriminate use of antibiotics by lazy, greedy, self serving aggro-businesses and government regulatory bodies with neither the power nor the mandate to protect our local (let alone global) environment from vast degradation by multinational corporations. This is just one more item on a list that now more than anything else resembles one of those giant cheese wheels of toilet paper unrolled. Blaming birds for this is like blaming rats for the black death in Europe. Europeans killed all the cats and old ladies because they thought they were in league with the devil. They lived in places of extreme crowding and pitiful sanitation. The rats overpopulated, the rat fleas bit both humans and rats and both became reservoirs for plague. In the end 1 in 3 people died and it was people who hand made a disaster through ignorance, superstition and acting against their own best interest. Wow, things haven't really changed all that much in 500 years.
The point, as someone else has mentioned here, is that these bacteria are resistant to antibiotics. Given that we don't normally treat wild birds with antibiotics, this is actually kind of troublesome.
This is probably due to the widespread prophylactic use of antibiotics in the feed given to farm animals, a practice that needs to be stopped (or at least sharply curtailed). Some antibiotics should be reserved only for use in humans, and then limited to cases where other antibiotics have proven ineffective.
The problem is that the drug companies make so much money off of selling the antibiotics to the feed suppliers, they're not exactly eager to stop doing it. So every time they develop a new "miracle" antibiotic, at the same time that your doctor is prescribing it for an ear infection, a lot full or cows, chickens or pigs somewhere a few miles away is also eating that antibiotic in its feed.
Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
Dude get a clue, hell, rent one, they're cheap, its the 21rst century... I figure kindergarteners have heard about space-time, if that's your signal for condescending you seriously need to consider a few night courses. The ideas proffered have been common conversations for magazines and science programs from PBS to the Discovery Channel (you do know how to read... yes?) If this is what passes for pedantic in your eyes, then I'm afraid it says a lot more about you than it does about me. As for being a charlatan, for the love o' Jebus go Google something (anything) before venting such profound ignorance.
I'm sorry you missed the point of what I was saying, that human beings and seagulls both belong. That the problem isn't seagulls and never has been. That all life can and should be respected and that people need to take responsibility for the stupid, shitty, shoddy crap they inflict on the planet and one another. If I wasn't laughing it was because this is one of the biggest threats we'll face this century. Diseases that we made indestructible because some idiot thought it might increase the yield of his cattle herd by 0.04%. Please, feel free, I'd love to hear a good resistant infection joke. Heard the one about the guy walking down the street with the red, running, pustulent sores? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Actually I'd say the bigger problem is all the run off getting into the oceans. Run off gets into oceans, little fish eat run off, big fish eat little fish, seagull eats big fish, it don't really sound like a case for Kojak here.
I think we really need to be worried about the core cause of all this resistance which is the agro-business pumping everything that breathes full of antibiotics to increase yields. We need to be saving antibiotics for humans, cut off all tax breaks and subsidies for farms that refuse to quit using antibiotics, basically if there ever was a job for regulation THIS would be the one.
Sadly since Citizens United they could be feeding the cows Soylent Green for all the congress critters are gonna care as they get their big fat checks free and legal now. How sad is it when the only real hope of doing anything about this corrupt mess lies in the hands of a couple of comedians, aka Colbert and Stewart? I guess the days of Woodward and Bernstein and real hard hitting reporters are long gone now.
But one of these days one of these nasties is gonna find a way to really spread through the population and we'll get to have another black plague, and in large part it will be due to nothing but greed and the endless drive for higher profits. Why is it I can't even muster up any outrage anymore? this kind of evil BS is so ingrained in the system now I can't even build up a hearty "meh" about it anymore. Just another way greed is cocking things up for everyone, shock gasp surprise.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.