1 00:00:10,099 --> 00:00:13,900My name is Patricia Huijbers, My research project is about bacteria that are unaffected by, 2 00:00:13,900 --> 00:00:16,920 or in other words resistant to, antibiotics. 3 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:20,770 Antibiotics are important compounds because they are used for the treatment 4 00:00:20,770 --> 00:00:24,189 of diseases caused by bacteria in animals and humans. 5 00:00:24,189 --> 00:00:28,320 Our use of these compounds has unfortunately resulted in bacteria 6 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:30,599 arming themselves against antibiotics. 7 00:00:30,599 --> 00:00:34,850 Normally infections with bacteria are treated with antibiotics, 8 00:00:34,850 --> 00:00:39,930 causing the bacteria to die. Resistant bacteria make chemicals that can act as 9 00:00:39,930 --> 00:00:41,780 a weapon against antibiotics. 10 00:00:41,780 --> 00:00:45,440 One chemical that these bacteria can make is ESBL. 11 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:51,230 ESBL breaks apart the structure of the antibiotic so that the bacteria survives. 12 00:00:51,230 --> 00:00:55,220 A person remains sick for longer and costs for treatment could increase. 13 00:00:55,220 --> 00:00:59,900 In addition to humans, chickens can carry bacteria that make ESBL. 14 00:00:59,900 --> 00:01:05,580 Concern exists that resistant bacteria could be transmitted between chickens and humans. 15 00:01:05,580 --> 00:01:09,060 The ways in which this might occur is via the food chain, 16 00:01:09,060 --> 00:01:13,310 via direct contact with live chickens, or via the environment. 17 00:01:13,310 --> 00:01:17,160 It is important to study these routes of transmission so that we can prevent 18 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:19,090 transmission in the future. 19 00:01:19,090 --> 00:01:23,440 In our first two studies we looked at transmission via the environment and at 20 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:26,840 transmission via direct contact with live chickens. 21 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:32,110 In our first study we looked at people living in areas with many or with few chickens. 22 00:01:32,110 --> 00:01:36,259 We expected that people living in areas with many chickens would more often be 23 00:01:36,259 --> 00:01:38,420 carriers of resistant bacteria, 24 00:01:38,420 --> 00:01:42,590 than people living in areas with few chickens, because in general these people 25 00:01:42,590 --> 00:01:44,580 live closer to chicken farms. 26 00:01:44,580 --> 00:01:47,750 However, this was not the case in our study. 27 00:01:47,750 --> 00:01:52,640 In our second study we looked at people who live and work on a farm with chickens. 28 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:57,399 We found that these people are more often carriers of bacteria that make ESBL, 29 00:01:57,399 --> 00:02:01,890 than people who do not live and work on a chicken farm. We do not know yet if this 30 00:02:01,890 --> 00:02:04,229 is due to contact with live chickens, 31 00:02:04,229 --> 00:02:08,560 further research is necessary. With these, and future results, 32 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,950 we hope to better arm ourselves against resistant bacteria.