Antibiotic resistance gene abundances associated with waste discharges to the Almendares River near Havana, Cuba.

ABSTRACT: Considerable debate exists over the primary cause of increased antibiotic resistance (AR) worldwide. Evidence suggests increasing AR results from overuse of antibiotics in medicine and therapeutic and nontherapeutic applications in agriculture. However, pollution also can influence environmental AR, particularly associated with heavy metal, pharmaceutical, and other waste releases, although the relative scale of the "pollution" contribution is poorly defined, which restricts targeted mitigation efforts. The question is "where to study and quantify AR from pollution versus other causes to best understand the pollution effect". One useful site is Cuba because industrial pollution broadly exists; antibiotics are used sparingly in medicine and agriculture; and multiresistant bacterial infectio

SUBMITTER: Graham DW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3024002 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature