A highly mobile gene resistant to the "last line" of antibiotics has emerged in southern China, it was announced today.
The revelation has come during World Antibiotic Awareness Week.
The gene is widespread in bacteria such as E.coli found in pigs and human patients and is highly resistant to polymyxins such as colistin, according to the report in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Some of the bacteria strains have epidemic potential while the mrc1-gene has been found on plasmids that can easily be copied and transferred between bacteria, the researchers say.
They warn of an "alarming potential" to spread and diversify between different bacteria.
The emergence of the gene is thought to be linked to the widespread use of colistin in agriculture in China.
The researchers found the gene in about 20% of samples of E.coli taken from more than 800 animals. It was also found in 16 cases of E.coli and of K.pneumonia sampled from 1,322 patients.
Professor Jian-Hua Liu, from South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, China, said today: "These are extremely worrying results. The polymyxins (colistin and polymyxin B) were the last class of antibiotics in which resistance was incapable of spreading from cell to cell.
"Until now, colistin resistance resulted from chromosomal mutations, making the resistance mechanism unstable and incapable of spreading to other bacteria.
"Our results reveal the emergence of the first polymyxin resistance gene that is readily passed between common bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Klesbsiella pneumoniae, suggesting that the progression from extensive drug resistance to pan-drug resistance is inevitable."
Lancet Infectious Diseases 19 November 2015 [abstract]
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