Antibiotic-resistant superbugs have been branded “one of the biggest threats to global health” of our time, and now researchers have discovered they could be spreading through an unlikely source.
Wild birds that populate our cities, invade our rubbish bins and steal our chips are carrying high levels of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria that can be transferred to humans, a new study by an Oxford University team has found.
The researchers analysed 700 samples of bacteria taken from the guts of 30 different species of wild birds across eight countries – the UK, the US, Canada, Japan, Finland, Italy, Lithuania and Sweden.
They found up to three times as many antimicrobial -esistant genes in birds living close to large human populations – such as gulls, crows and ducks – than their more remote counterparts living in mountains or remote …