In the recent years, antibiotics have been widely used to treat or prevent infectious diseases in both humans and animals. However, significant amounts of antibiotics are excreted unaltered or as metabolites (up to 75%;), which presents a major source of antibiotic input to the environment. These antibiotics have the potential to contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARG), which have recently been recognized as emerging contaminants in and of themselves.
Soil has been already considered as one of the largest environmental reservoir of antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic-resistance genes from the soil resistome can enter the food chain via contaminated crops or groundwater, and have potential consequences for human health if transferred to human pathogens.So it is really important to learn the distribution and changes of resistance genes in soil. |