[STUDY] Fluffy Clouds Spread Antibiotic-Resistance Bacteria!—Global Health Threat?

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be found in many places across the globe.

They are already alarming since bacteria that are no longer affected by antibiotics are becoming a major sanitary concern. Now, imagine that these antibiotic-resistant bacteria are spread by innocent-looking fluffy clouds.

This detail was revealed by a new collaborative study conducted by a group of French and Canadian researchers.

Fluffy Clouds Spread Antibiotic-Resistance Bacteria!

According to Interesting Engineering's latest report, the new study revealed that fluffy clouds are actually large-scale dissemination routes for bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes.

"This is the first study to show that clouds harbor antibiotic resistance genes of bacterial origin in concentrations comparable to other natural environments," explained Universite Laval's Faculty of Science and Engineering Prof. Florent Rossi.

In their latest study, they discovered that the cloud samples contain up to 8,000 bacteria per milliliter of cloud water. These fluffy clouds host 20,800 copies of antibiotic-resistance genes that originated from bacteria.

They published their findings in the journal Science of The Total Environment.

Is this a global health threat?

Rossi said that their new study proves that clouds could be pathways for antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

These clouds could spread their genes over short and long ranges. Because of this, they are planning to make an effort to identify the emission sources.

Rossi and his team believe that human activities cause these emission sources. If they can locate them, they can limit the dispersal of the antibiotic-resistant genes of bacteria in clouds.

As of writing, it is still unclear if the clouds containing antibiotic-resistant bacteria could become a global health threat. But, the World Health Organization already warned about these bacteria since they are becoming trickier and harder to treat.

If you want to see further details about the new discovery on clouds-carrying antibiotic-resistant bacteria, you can click here.

In other stories, a gut microbe, which could worsen obesity, was recently discovered. We also reported about the newly-identified protein that could defeat the deadly flesh-eating bacteria.

For more news updates about bacteria and other health topics, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.