Previous Article | Next Article 
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2000, p. 5406-5409, Vol. 66, No. 12
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Received 10 August 2000/Accepted 20 September 2000
Several mechanisms are responsible for the ability of
microorganisms to tolerate antibiotics, and the incidence of resistance to these compounds within bacterial species has increased since the
commercial use of antibiotics became widespread. To establish the
extent of and changes in the diversity of antibiotic resistance patterns in natural populations, we determined the MICs of five antibiotics for collections of enteric bacteria isolated from diverse
hosts and geographic locations and during periods before and after
commercial application of antibiotics began. All of the pre-antibiotic
era strains were susceptible to high levels of these antibiotics,
whereas 20% of strains from contemporary populations of
Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica
displayed high-level resistance to at least one of the antibiotics. In
addition to the increase in the frequency of high-level resistance,
background levels, conferred by genes providing nonspecific low-level
resistance to multiple antibiotics, were significantly higher among
contemporary strains. Changes in the incidence and levels of
antibiotic resistance are not confined to particular segments of the
bacterial population and reflect responses to the increased
exposure of bacteria to antimicrobial compounds over the past several decades.
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Long-Term Shifts in Patterns of Antibiotic
Resistance in Enteric Bacteria
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 233 Life Sciences South, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. Phone: (520) 626-8355. Fax: (520) 621-3709. E-mail: hochman{at}emailarizona.edu.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2000, p. 5406-5409, Vol. 66, No. 12
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Tarkkanen, A.-M., Heinonen, T., Jogi, R., Mentula, S., van der Rest, M. E., Donskey, C. J., Kemppainen, T., Gurbanov, K., Nord, C. E.
(2009). P1A Recombinant {beta}-Lactamase Prevents Emergence of Antimicrobial Resistance in Gut Microflora of Healthy Subjects during Intravenous Administration of Ampicillin. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother.
53: 2455-2462
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Pallecchi, L., Lucchetti, C., Bartoloni, A., Bartalesi, F., Mantella, A., Gamboa, H., Carattoli, A., Paradisi, F., Rossolini, G. M.
(2007). Population Structure and Resistance Genes in Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria from a Remote Community with Minimal Antibiotic Exposure. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother.
51: 1179-1184
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Middleton, J. H., Ambrose, A.
(2005). ENUMERATION AND ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE PATTERNS OF FECAL INDICATOR ORGANISMS ISOLATED FROM MIGRATORY CANADA GEESE (BRANTA CANADENSIS). J Wildl Dis
41: 334-341
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Harmoinen, J., Mentula, S., Heikkila, M., van der Rest, M., Rajala-Schultz, P. J., Donskey, C. J., Frias, R., Koski, P., Wickstrand, N., Jousimies-Somer, H., Westermarck, E., Lindevall, K.
(2004). Orally Administered Targeted Recombinant Beta-Lactamase Prevents Ampicillin-Induced Selective Pressure on the Gut Microbiota: a Novel Approach to Reducing Antimicrobial Resistance. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother.
48: 75-79
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Guan, S., Xu, R., Chen, S., Odumeru, J., Gyles, C.
(2002). Development of a Procedure for Discriminating among Escherichia coli Isolates from Animal and Human Sources. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
68: 2690-2698
[Abstract] [Full Text]
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»