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Disinfectants could be helping bacteria to become resistant
Thought LeadersProfessor Robert BraggProfessorUniversity of the Free State
News-Medical speaks to Professor Robert Bragg about disinfectants and how they could be helping bacteria to become resistant.
What provoked your research into bacteria and their resistance?
I have been involved in research on the control of animal diseases for many years now. The control of any disease in a population (human or animal) is based on three main pillars. These are 1) vaccinations and vaccines, 2) treatment options (such as antibiotics for bacterial diseases), and 3) biosecurity.
With the ever-increasing problems with bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics, it is becoming essential to look at alternatives to antibiotics before we have no antibiotics left. The most likely solution to the antibiotic resistance crisis (particularly in animal production) would be improved biosecurity.
Sanitiser superbug: Concern over disinfectant-resistant bacteria which could cause another pandemic
By Shaun Smillie
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Johannesburg - In a laboratory in the University of Free State a strain of bacteria is showing an adaptation that has scientists worried.
The strain of the bacteria Serratia marcescens has become resistant to disinfectants and this could be the sign of things to come where humankind could end up facing a pandemic worse than Covid-19. It is not regarded as a serious human pathogen but this strain that we have isolated is extremely resistant to disinfectants, said Professor Robert Bragg, who is head of the Veterinary Biotechnology group, at the University of the Free State.
South African scientists have warned that rising demand for affordable meat and the expansion of intensive animal agriculture creates the ‘perfect breeding ground’ for the development of viruses that could spark future pandemics.
With over 100m confirmed cases worldwide and more than 2m deaths, it is believed that the current COVID-19 crisis started in a Huanan wet market, where the first cluster of cases is thought to have originated. Currently, a WHO team are visiting sites in the Chinese city of Wuhan, attempting to piece together the puzzle of how SARS-CoV-2 passed from animals to humans.
While the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is not yet fully determined, scientists at the University of the Free State in South Africa have outlined the link between food production, past pandemics and possible future crises.
Cheap meat makes future pandemics likely say scientists in South Africa
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Scientists in South Africa warn that unless we change our relationship with meat, more pandemics look increasingly likely in the future.
Our desire for cheap meat could land us in trouble in the future according to scientists.
The term “once in a generation” has been used frequently to describe the havoc being wreaked by COVID-19. Yet some scientists feel that the current pandemic, which has already infected more than 16 million people and killed more than 600,000 people worldwide, is only a dress rehearsal for an even bigger one.
The human demand for affordable meat is creating the perfect breeding ground for more diseases of this kind, scientists at the University of the Free State (UFS) in South Africa have claimed.