Antibiotic resistance: vultures wintering in India show pattern

Antibiotic resistance: vultures wintering in India show pattern

Context

Escherichia coli, a pathogen seen in over 90% of Egyptian vultures that migrate to northwest India to spend the winter, tend to show significant difference in resistance to antibiotics within a single season, a study has found

Study subjects

A team studied vultures that arrived in Bikaner in October 2011 and left in March 2012. The birds fed on cattle carcasses dumped in Jorbeer in Bikaner

Observations

• Development of antibiotic resistance: The vultures were resistant to certain antibiotics when they arrived and developed resistance to certain other antibiotics when they left. Their sensitivity to certain antibiotics also changed within a few months. The resistance to multiple antibiotics was as high as about 71.5% in E. coli collected from vultures. Resistance of 12-13 bacterial strains to 13 commonly used antibiotics was studied
• The vultures that use human-dominated landscapes as part of their life cycle were likely to act as reservoirs of bacterial resistance
• Vultures were able to incorporate and reflect resistance at the site of wintering and during the period of sampling. So guidelines to restrict antibiotic use in both humans and animals by one country or region alone will be inadequate when wild birds can spread drug-resistant bacteria

Importance of the study

The findings of the study are significant because migrating wild birds can spread drug-resistant pathogens and cause disease