NEW YORK, April 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ According to new research by World Animal Protection, a global animal welfare nonprofit organization, public waterways next to factory farms contain antibiotic resistance genes (ARG)âthe building blocks of superbugsâthat may pose a risk to public health.
The study provides new evidence of the presence of antibiotic resistance in the environment near large factory farms in the US, suggesting intensive farms could be polluting local waterways and communities with resistant bacteria as a result of their practices. Differences in sample results taken downstream compared to upstream suggest the target farm sites are contributing to the contamination of ARGs.
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The Food We Eat Is Contributing to the Rise of Superbugs, Report Suggests
On 4/16/21 at 11:40 AM EDT
Researchers have detected the building blocks of superbugs bacteria resistant to the antibiotics used to fight them in the environment near large factory farms in the United States.
An investigation conducted by global animal welfare non-profit World Animal Protection (WAP) identified what are known as antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in waterways and soils near these farms that could pose a significant threat to public health, according to a report shared exclusively with
Newsweek.
In October 2020, investigators took 45 water samples and 45 soil samples from eight sites in eastern North Carolina both downstream and upstream of industrial pig farms. These samples were then analyzed to identify whether 23 target ARGs were present.
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