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Recent data have shown that microbial antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) can be found in the environment and that the presence of ARGs predates the development and use of antibiotics (NEJM JW Infect Dis Oct 2011 and Nature 2011; 477:457; NEJM JW Infect Dis Jun 2012 and PLoS ONE 2012; 7:e34953). What, then, is the current prevalence of ARGs in the environment? And is the prevalence being influenced by human activity?
To answer these questions, researchers identified ARGs and residual antibiotics in sediment samples from 18 estuaries along the coast of China and analyzed human socioeconomic factors in the upstream catchment basins for each estuary.
A total of 248 ARGs and 9 genetic mobilizing genes were detected in the samples, with an average …