Sludge Watch ==> Alaska - sewage implicated in drug-resistant bacteria in wild arctic birds

[Maureen Reilly]

ALASKA: Drug-resistant bacteria found in wild arctic birds
24.jan.08
National Geographic
Ker Than


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/35851454.htm

Microbes that are immune to commonly used drugs have, according to this 
story,
been found inside birds living in some of Earth's most remote regions,
scientists say.

The research suggests that antibiotic resistance has spread deep into
nature—and humans are likely to blame.

"This is an indication how far we have pushed antibiotic resistance," study
leader Björn Olsen, a professor in the department of infectious diseases at
Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden was quoted as saying.
The researchers sampled waste from 97 birds belonging to a dozen different
species from the Arctic tundra of northeastern Siberia, northern Alaska, and
northern Greenland.

Eight birds—including sandpipers, geese, and gulls—carried Escherichia 
coli
bacteria that was resistant to one or more commonly prescribed antibiotics.
The researchers speculate that the birds contracted drug-resistant E. coli 
from
contact with human sewage or waste in lower latitudes before migrating 
north.