New drug-resistant bacteria discovered in a hog farm, highly dangerous to human's health

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A group of researchers presented a new health threatening, and very contagious grade of multidrug-resistant bacteria.

The discovery about an extremely harmful microorganism lurking on a Midwestern hog farm was published on the journal American Society Of Microbiology. And its effect to a human body is radically hard to manage and can even lead to death.

This is the primary time to discover microbes on a U.S. animal barn. The bacteria possess a readily segment of their DNA to function in combating an antibiotic called carbapenem.

According to CBS News report, United States prohibited the use of carbapenem antibiotics for animals. This is to reduce the development of antibiotic resistance among animals and not to be dispersed to humans. In this, it's mystifying that the microbes are able to resist an antibiotic they encounter for the very first time.

Nevertheless, there is "no evidence that it is entering the food supply," says Thomas Wittum, a scientist at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine who published the findings in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy along with his colleagues.

More investigation should be accomplished before concluding what exactly the risk since it is an uncommon resistant strain on a single farm, Wittum added.

The team gathered specimen from four times visit to a hog farm. They swabbed everything that comes in contact with both animals and farm employees. In addition, rectal swabs and fecal samples from hogs were collected.

The 18 samples collected from areas that sheltered piglets and sows harbored the bacteria called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)

A plasmid which is a gene present on the circular segment of the bacteria's DNA aided them to survive when treated with carbapenem antibiotic. This gene has the power to provide duplicates itself towards the other bacterial species.

In fact, "the striking evidence from this study is that they found the resistance gene in various species of bacteria, and that strongly suggests that it has moved around," says Tim Johnson, a microbiologist at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine.