Pediatric News - Food exposure tied to antibiotic resistance; never used tetracycline
WASHINGTON — Tetracycline-resistant bacteria persisted in the mouths of children who were not likely to have been exposed to tetracycline, Holli Lancaster said at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
Although most young children are unlikely to have been directly exposed to tetracycline, normal oral microflora are a good place for tetracycline-resistant bacteria to lurk, Ms. Lancaster of the Eastman Dental Institute, London, reported in a poster presentation. Samples of dental plaque were obtained from 18 children aged 4-6 years as a baseline and obtained additional samples 6 and 12 months later.
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The children had no adverse reactions to the presence of tetracycline-resistant bacteria, which were isolated from their normal oral microflora. Overall, 15 of the 18 children studied had tetracycline-resistant bacteria in their mouths at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. The median percentages of 0.78%, 0.57%, and 0.62%, respectively, were not significantly different from one another. One hypothesis is that the children acquired tetracycline resistance from food, possibly from both meat and vegetable products. Tetracyclines have been used in animal husbandry and as pesticides in fruit production.
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