'Last-Resort' Antibiotics Fail Against New Superbugs - MCR-1

[Gert van der Hoek]

30 november 2015

Some bacteria have finally breached the last wall of humans' antibiotic stronghold, according to a new study from China. In the study, researchers found a gene in one strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) that protects these bacteria against one of the antibiotics considered to be a last resort.

Moreover, this gene is easily transferred among microbial species, raising the possibility of multiple epidemics that doctors would be unable to treat.

The results are "extremely worrying," study author Jian-Hua Liu, a professor at South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, said in a statement. When bacteria become resistant to even the last-resort antibiotics and can share that resistance with other types of bacteria, that leaves the human population extremely vulnerable to a range of infections that would be unstoppable, he said. [6 Superbugs to Watch Out For].

In the study, the researchers found the gene, called mcr-1, in samples of E. coli that were taken from pigs, pork products and infected people. The gene protects the bacteria against an antibiotic called colistin.

Mcr-1 was most common in the samples taken from animals, suggesting that it originated in livestock, the researchers said. In China, colistin is widely administered to livestock.

Animals that are raised for people to eat are routinely given antibiotics to protect the livestock against infection, and to stimulate their growth. But the constant presence of antibiotics in the livestock diet helps drive the increasing numbers of antibiotic resistant bacteria today, researchers say.

thanks to David Evans

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[Gert van der Hoek]

Superbug resistant to last-resort antibiotics turns up in Europe​

By HELEN BRANSWELL
DECEMBER 3, 2015




Researchers in Denmark announced Thursday that they had found samples of E. coli bacteria that are resistant to the antibiotic of last resort, just two weeks after Chinese researchers revealed they had found a similarly resistant strain.

The announcement means the form of the bacteria has spread beyond just one region of the globe. To the surprise of scientists, it has also been circulating in the Scandinavian country for some time. The earliest of the Danish samples showing this resistance gene dates back to 2012.

Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark?s National Food Institute in S?borg and the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen discovered the presence of the new resistant bacteria by searching for it in a database containing the genetic sequences of about 3,000 E. coli samples. They ran the search after Chinese scientists last month reported finding a new colistin-resistent gene, mcr-1, in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Aarestrup supported Price?s call for a ban on agricultural use of colistin, but also insisted more needs to be done. ?We really need to drastically, drastically, drastically reduce the use of antibiotics,? he said, adding the reduction must occur both in agricultural and human use of the drugs.

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[Gert van der Hoek]

Apocalypse Pig Redux: Last-Resort Resistance in Europe


THU, 12/3/2015

Here’s a breaking news follow-up to my recent post on the discovery of resistance to colistin, the truly last last-resort antibiotic, in animals, meat and people in China. A research collaboration shared between George Washington University and the Statens Serum Institute and National Food Institute in Denmark is announcing today that they have found that same resistance factor in stored bacterial samples dating back as far as 2012.

Short version: That resistance to the very last-ditch antibiotic is already spreading globally.

The Antibiotic Resistance Action Center in the Milken Institute School of Public Health at GWU, headed by Lance Price, PhD, says in an emailed statement:

The news that the dangerous colistin resistance gene has been found in Denmark is alarming. This newly identified gene, called MCR-1, is on a mobile piece of DNA that can make copies of itself and then jump to from bacterium to bacterium, spreading resistance. History shows that these mobile resistance genes can spread around the world quickly, silently riding in people, animals, and food. The news that MCR-1 has been discovered in Denmark suggests that this scenario is playing out in real time.


Maryn McKenna


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[Gert van der Hoek]

New rare resistance gene found in Danish patient

Denmark is the first country besides China that has detected the bacterium. .

03. DECEMBER 2015

As the first country apart from China have been found a new resistance in Denmark that makes Coli bacteria resistant to antibiotics colistin.

Last week there were reports of discoveries in China of the new resistance. Now, a review that resistance gene also found in Coli bacteria from food and a Danish patient.

It informs Statens Serum Insitut.

The special feature of mcr-1 gene is that it can be transferred between different types of bacteria, and that it leads to resistance to colistin, which is the last on the shelf to deal with the difficult multi-resistant coliform type CPO.

Resistance gene found in samples from imported chicken meat - some dating back to 2012 - and in one patient sample from 2015.

- The discovery of the gene in Denmark and Europe is very worrying and we therefore follow developments very closely, says consultant Robert Forest, Statens Serum Institut, and continues:

- But since the gene is only found in one patient, and the oldest finds in food is back to 2012, so there is not an acute emergency. It's more prospects in the longer term, there is a concern, he said.