title: Reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes.
abstract: A potential concern about the use of antibiotics in animal husbundary is that, as antibiotic resistant bacteria move from the farm into the human diet, they may pass antibiotic resistance genes to bacteria that normally reside in a the human intestinal tract and from there to bacteria that cause human disease (reservoir hypothesis). In this article various approaches to evaluating the risk of agricultural use of antibiotics are assessed critically. In addition, the potential benefits of applying new technology and using new insights from the field of microbial ecology are explained.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Abigail
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salyers
authors.forename: Nadja B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Shoemaker
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D003106:Colon / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents