New Zealand researchers have found the active ingredients in commonly-used weed killers can cause bacteria to be less susceptible to antibiotics.
The study builds upon research published in 2015 that found three common herbicides, including Round-up, caused E.coli and Salmonella to become less sensitive to antibiotics. The new research, published in Microbiology, investigated which ingredients were responsible and found it was the active ingredients to blame; the researchers suggest regulators should consider these impacts when considering whether such products are safe to use.
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“The message from the paper is clear, we need to reconsider our use of herbicides in light of the effect that they are having on the microbial world,” [said Dr. Heather Hendrickson, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Bioscience, Massey University.]
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“[The] findings show how complex biology and the microbial world are. Some of the ingredients made the bacteria more sensitive to some antibiotics, and others made them less sensitive to antibiotics. Fortunately, the type of resistance [they] found is not the type that can transfer from one species of bacteria to another, but it is clearly still cause for concern,” [said Dr. Siouxsie Wiles, Microbiologist and Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland.]
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Herbicides linked to antibiotic resistance – Expert reaction
