Human health consequences of use of antimicrobial agents in aquaculture

Ole E. Heuer, Hilde Kruse, Kari Grave, P. Collignon, Iddya Karunasagar, Frederick J. Angulo

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    388 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Intensive use of antimicrobial agents in aquaculture provides a selective pressure creating reservoirs of drug-resistant bacteria and transferable resistance genes in fish pathogens and other bacteria in the aquatic environment. From these reservoirs, resistance genes may disseminate by horizontal gene transfer and reach human pathogens, or drug-resistant pathogens from the aquatic environment may reach humans directly. Horizontal gene transfer may occur in the aquaculture environment, in the food chain, or in the human intestinal tract. Among the antimicrobial agents commonly used in aquaculture, several are classified by the World Health Organisation as critically important for use in humans. Occurrence of resistance to these antimicrobial agents in human pathogens severely limits the therapeutic options in human infections. Considering the rapid growth and importance of aquaculture industry in many regions of the world and the widespread, intensive, and often unregulated use of antimicrobial agents in this area of animal production, efforts are needed to prevent development and spread of antimicrobial resistance in aquaculture to reduce the risk to human health.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1248-1253
    Number of pages6
    JournalClinical Infectious Diseases
    Volume49
    Issue number8
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 15 Oct 2009

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