Urban and agricultural soils in Southern California are a reservoir of carbapenem ‐resistant bacteria

The study reported here is the first specific study about the distribution and characteristics of carbapenem ‐resistant bacteria (CRB) in urban and agricultural environmental soils in the United States. We have found that the soils from Los Angeles–Southern California area are an underappreciated reservoir of bacteria resistant to carbapenems and other antibiotics, including carbapenemase‐producing C RB. Our findings also show a much higher relative frequency of CRB on soils from locations adjacent to farms compared to soils from urban locations. AbstractCarbapenems are last ‐resort β‐lactam antibiotics used in healthcare facilities to treat multidrug‐resistant infections. Thus, most studies on identifying and characterizing carbapenem‐resistant bacteria (CRB) have focused on clinical settings. Relatively, little is still known about the distribution and charac teristics of CRBs in the environment, and the role of soil as a potential reservoir of CRB in the United States remains unknown. Here, we have surveyed 11 soil samples from 9 different urban or agricultural locations in the Los Angeles–Southern California area to determine the prevalence and chara cteristics of CRB in these soils. All samples tested contained CRB with a frequency of<10 to 1.3  × 104 cfu per gram of soil, with most agricultural soil samples having a much higher relative frequency of CRB than urban soil samples. Identification and characterization of 40 CRB from these soil samples...
Source: MicrobiologyOpen - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research