Urban birds are riddled with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, study finds

Urban ducks and crows might offer us a connection to nature, but scientists have found wild birds that live near humans are more likely to harbour bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

- Nicola Davis

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is largely caused by the overuse of drugs such as antibiotics in humans and livestock. The issue is of serious concern: data for 2019 shows about 4.95 million deaths globally were associated with bacterial AMR and 1.27 million directly caused by such resistance.

Species of wild birds that tend to turn up in urban settings are reservoirs for bacteria, with the hallmarks of resistance to a host of drugs, say researchers.

"Basically, what we're seeing are genes that confer resistance to antimicrobials that would be used to treat human infections," said Prof Samuel Sheppard, the co-author of the study by the Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research.

The team said its findings were important as wild birds had the capacity to travel over long distances.

Sheppard said a key concern was that these birds could pass the antimicrobial-resistant bacteria to captive birds destined to be eaten by humans such as those on poultry farms.