Nearly half of fecal samples from wild chimpanzees contain bacteria that is resistant to a major class of antibiotics people commonly use in the vicinity of Gombe National Park in Tanzania, according to new research.
“Our results suggest that antibiotic-resistant bacteria is actually spreading from people to non-human primates by making its way into the local watershed,” says senior author Thomas Gillespie, an associate professor in Emory University’s environmental sciences department and Rollins School of Public Health.
“People are bathing and washing in the streams, contaminating the water with drug-resistant bacteria where wild chimpanzees and baboons drink.”
“By misusing antibiotics, people can actually harm not only themselves, but also the species they share an environment with.”