<p class="title">Australian seagulls carry drug-resistant bacteria that could lead to serious infections in humans, researchers said Wednesday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The study comes as doctors globally sound the alarm over bacterial illnesses that are immune to modern medicine.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Scientists, led by a team from Perth's Murdoch University, said 20 per cent of silver gulls were thought to carry disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The gulls became infected after coming into contact with human faeces, a report published this week in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy suggested, likely through sewage or discarded diapers at garbage dumps.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Their study involved taking more than 550 samples from silver gulls around Australia and testing them for various bacteria.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"What we found, which we didn't expect to find, was the high levels of resistant E Coli that the seagulls were carrying -- that was quite unusual," Murdoch University researcher Mark O'Dea told AFP.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Quite a large number of the bacteria were actually human clones or human bacteria, so the seagulls had picked this up somehow from humans, they hadn't come directly as a seagull bacteria."</p>.<p class="bodytext">The study found more than 20 per cent of the birds were carrying antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can cause diseases like urinary tract infections and sepsis.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The World Health Organisation has warned of the increasing threat of so-called superbugs -- bacteria which have developed resistance to known antibiotics -- and called for the urgent development of a new generation of drugs.</p>.<p class="bodytext">O'Dea said the risk of seagulls passing an infection on to humans was "pretty negligible" but could still occur.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Some of the bacteria were already resistant to "fairly significant" drugs, he said, adding that it was feared the gulls could spread the superbugs as they fly around the country.</p>
<p class="title">Australian seagulls carry drug-resistant bacteria that could lead to serious infections in humans, researchers said Wednesday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The study comes as doctors globally sound the alarm over bacterial illnesses that are immune to modern medicine.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Scientists, led by a team from Perth's Murdoch University, said 20 per cent of silver gulls were thought to carry disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The gulls became infected after coming into contact with human faeces, a report published this week in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy suggested, likely through sewage or discarded diapers at garbage dumps.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Their study involved taking more than 550 samples from silver gulls around Australia and testing them for various bacteria.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"What we found, which we didn't expect to find, was the high levels of resistant E Coli that the seagulls were carrying -- that was quite unusual," Murdoch University researcher Mark O'Dea told AFP.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Quite a large number of the bacteria were actually human clones or human bacteria, so the seagulls had picked this up somehow from humans, they hadn't come directly as a seagull bacteria."</p>.<p class="bodytext">The study found more than 20 per cent of the birds were carrying antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can cause diseases like urinary tract infections and sepsis.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The World Health Organisation has warned of the increasing threat of so-called superbugs -- bacteria which have developed resistance to known antibiotics -- and called for the urgent development of a new generation of drugs.</p>.<p class="bodytext">O'Dea said the risk of seagulls passing an infection on to humans was "pretty negligible" but could still occur.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Some of the bacteria were already resistant to "fairly significant" drugs, he said, adding that it was feared the gulls could spread the superbugs as they fly around the country.</p>