Background Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem worldwide, but communicating this challenge to policymakers and non-experts is complicated by the multiplicity of bacterial pathogens and the distinct classes of antibiotics used to treat them. It is difficult, even for experts aware of the pharmacodynamics of antibiotics, to infer the seriousness of resistance without information on how com...

A mathematical model for the population dynamics of nonconjugative plasmids that can be mobilized by conjugative factors is presented. In the analysis of the properties of this model, primary consideration is given to the conditions under which these nonself-transmissible extrachromosomal elements could become established and would be maintained in bacterial populations. The results of this ana...

The Toowoomba Veterinary Laboratory tests for antibiotic resistance through passive surveillance of bacterial pathogens from diseased, frequently intensively managed, animals. Testing is carried out on the basis of the number of animals involved, the nature and severity of the disease and the identity and significance of the bacterium, the results guiding the submitting veterinarian in implemen...

Recent studies have found high frequencies of bacteria with increased genomic rates of mutation in both clinical and laboratory populations. These observations may seem surprising in light of earlier experimental and theoretical studies. Mutator genes (genes that elevate the genomic mutation rate) are likely to induce deleterious mutations and thus suffer an indirect selective disadvantage; at ...

In April of this year tissue viability nurses, professors, surgeons, and microbiologists met at the University of Birmingham to discuss a real solution to the developing antibiotic resistance catastrophe.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a growing clinical problem and public health threat. Antibiotic use is a known risk factor for the emergence of antibiotic resistance, but demonstrating the causal link between antibiotic use and resistance is challenging. This review describes different study designs for assessing the association between antibiotic use and resistance and discusses strengt...

The study of integrons in 181 Escherichia coli isolates from three groups of healthy subjects who lived in communities and had not taken antibiotics for at least 1 month showed that the presence of integrons was associated with antibiotic resistance and phylogenetic grouping of the bacterial host and dependent on a subject's living environment.

The faecal flora: a source of healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistance. 2 The faecal flora: a source of healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistance.

Wild birds have been postulated as sentinels, reservoirs, and potential spreaders of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been isolated from a multitude of wild bird species. Several studies strongly indicate transmission of resistant bacteria from human rest products to wild birds. There is evidence suggesting that wild birds can spread resistant bacteria through migration...