Dutch scientists claim breakthrough in tackling antibiotic-resistant E.coli

Thursday 09 June 2011

Scientists from the TNO research institute in Delft are claiming a substance made up of natural products could be a way to stop the spread of the E.coli bacteria EHEC, which has killed 25 people in Germany.

The institute's food scientists have made a ‘world wide breakthrough in the battle against lethal bacteria such as EHEC’, the organisation said in a short English statement. ‘The discovery has been tested using the ESBL-bacterium, but is also applicable against the EHEC-bacterium.’

‘We have found a cure made of natural ingredients which kills these resistant bacteria,’ Jan Pieter van der Lugt of the TNO says in the Telegraaf.

Two years

However, the product will be another two years in development and testing before it can be certified for use by human patients such as those affected by the German outbreak, he said.

‘We are keeping the ingredient list secret to protect our commercial interests but in time this substance which we now put in the food of sick chickens could be used as a food supplement,’ he said.

However, Van der Lugt said the over use of antibiotics in the livestock farming sector means an increasing amount of resistant bacteria will enter the food chain. This issue is what really needs tackling, he said.

© DutchNews.nl

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