Wastewater provides for ideal breeding ground for antibiotic resistance

The unique characteristics of wastewater, which allow resistance genes to grow against harmless bacteria to those that cause disease, provide a potent breeding ground for antibiotic resistance to evolve, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Centre for Antibiotic Resistance Research (CARe) in Gothenburg, Sweden, presented evidence for where the genes could gain their ability to move in a study published in the journal Communications Biology.

It is not enough for the antibiotics alone to drive the process, they acknowledged.

For the movement of reistant genes, the species carrying the resistance genes in their chromosomes need to be present, along with the specific DNA sequences providing for their movement.

The researchers analysed DNA from thousands of samples across different environments and found that all these key components came together not in the gut of humans or animals, but in wastewaters.

"In order to fight antibiotic resistance we cannot focus only on preventing