Gut bacteria plot resistance according to microbiologists at University of Illinois Urbana, as reported in Nature Science Update 2 March 2001.
They studied bacteria that only live inside the human digestive system and found they contained genes for antibiotic resistance. They would have gained these by swapping genes with already resistant bacteria found in food. This process would help explain the rapid spread of antibiotic resistance.
Editorial Comment: Antibiotic resistance is often used as evidence for evolution. However, as microbiologists study the process, they have found that resistance genes have always existed and bacteria are able to pass on genes that carry antibiotic resistance to other bacteria. This is a built in survival mechanism for bacteria. As far as they are concerned antibiotics are poisons.
The rise in resistant bacteria is due to widespread antibiotic use in farming as well as in medicine. This has killed off many non-resistant organisms and left only already resistant forms of bacteria to reproduce and spread ‘resistance’ genes to remaining non-resistance bacteria. No evolution is involved. The already resistant bacteria have not changed and the acquisition of their resistance genes by others does not even change them into a different species of bacteria.
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