Surfers ‘three times likelier to carry e coli than non-surfers’

Findings have implications for antimicrobial resistance

Surfers are three times more likely to have antibiotic resistant E coli in their guts than non-surfers, a study has revealed.

Surfers swallow 10 times more sea water than sea swimmers, and scientists wanted to find out if that made them more vulnerable to bacteria that pollute seawater, and whether those bacteria are resistant to antibiotics.

The Beach Bums study saw a team at Exeter University ask 300 people, half of whom regularly surf the UK’s coastline, to take rectal swabs.

They then compared the faecal samples to assess whether the surfers’ guts contained E coli bacteria that were able to grow in the presence of Cefotaxime, an antibiotic used to treat a number of bacterial infections.

Cefotaxime has previously been prescribed to kill off these bacteria, but some have acquired genes that enable them to survive this treatment.

The study, published in the journal Environment International, found 13 of 143 (9%) of surfers were colonised by these resistant bacteria, compared with four out of 130 (3%) of non-surfers swabbed. That meant the bacteria would continue to grow even if treated with cefotaxime.

Researchers found regular surfers were four times as likely to harbour bacteria that contain mobile genes that make bacteria resistant to the antibiotic.

They said this was significant because the genes can be passed between bacteria, potentially spreading the ability to resist antibiotic treatment between bacteria.

The World Health Organisation has described antimicrobial resistance as a “global health emergency,” with health experts warning that resistance to antimicrobial drugs could cause a bigger threat to mankind than cancer.

Dr Anne Leonard, of Exeter University, said: “We urgently need to know more about how humans are exposed to these bacteria and how they colonise our guts.”

Picture: Getty. Surfers swallow 10 times more sea water than sea swimmers.