The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that of the 2 million antibiotic-resistant infections per year in the U.S., 20 percent are linked to agriculture. This estimate is based on patients who directly acquire antibiotic-resistant superbugs from eating meat. Little has been done to determine how eating plants contributes to the spread of antibiotic-resistant "superbugs."
"Our findings highlight the importance of tackling foodborne antibiotic-resistance from a complete food chain perspective that includes plant-foods in addition to meat," said Marlène Maeusli, PhD candidate at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, who is the lead author on the study.
Spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs from plants to humans is different from outbreaks of diarrheal illnesses caused immediately after eating contaminated vegetables. Superbugs can asymptomatically hide in (or "colonize") the intestines for months or even years, when they then escape the intestine and cause an infection, such as a urinary infection. . . ,
"We continue to seek the plant characteristics and host factors that result in key microbial community shifts in the gut that put us at risk for colonization and those that prevent it," said Maeusli. "The environment and human health -- in this context via agriculture and microbiomes -- are inextricably linked."
