Food: A source of resistant strains of microorganisms

Abstract

The widespread application of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine, agriculture led to the appearance of residues in the environment and food. The use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animal husbandry enhances the significance of their residual persistence in food of animal origin. This load of environment and food with residues present the selective pressure, which lead to the appearance and dissemination of resistant bacteria. The phenomenon of bacterial resistance is emphasized by potential horizontal transfer of resistance pattern with conjugate plasmids and transponsons. The food of animal origin that is produced without thermic treatments as well as some fermented products represents the significant reservoir and source of resistant microorganisms, Recently attention was focused on enterococci and staphylococci. It is necessary to avoid the distribution of bacteria with mobilizable antibiotic resistances. Measures include the use of proper starter cultures and of proper substrates (e.g. pasteurized milk) for food fermentations, and the ban of antibiotics with clinical application as growth promoters especially antibiotics with cross resistance. .

Nekontrolisana primena antibiotika u profilaksi i terapiju oboljenja ljudi i životinja dovodi do pojave rezidua u okolini i namirnicama. Primena antibiotika, kao promotora rasta u uzgoju životinja aktualizira značaj njihovog rezidualnog nalaza u namirnicama animalnog porekla. Takvo opterećenje okoline i namirnica reziduama predstavlja selektivni pritisak koji dovodi do razvoja i diseminacije rezistentnih bakterija. Fenomen rezistencije mikroorganizama potencira se mogućnošću horizontalnog transfera elemenata rezistencije putem konjugativnih plazmida i transpozoma. Namirnice animalnog porekla koje se proizvode bez termičkog tretmana kao i određene vrste fermentisanih namirnica, predstavljaju značajan rezervoar i izvor rezistentnih mikroorganizama. Posebno su sa tog aspekta značajne enterokoke i stafilokoke. Distribucija bakterija sa prenosivim elementima rezistencije se mora izbeći. Mere predostrožnosti podrazumevaju korišćenje odgovarajućih starter kultura i odgovarajućih supstrata (pasterizovano mleko) za procese fermentacije, kao i zabranu korišćenja antibiotika kao promotora rasta, posebno preparata kod kojih se uspostavlja mehanizam unakrsne rezistencije.