One of the world’s most popular weedkillers may be fueling deadly superbugs

Researchers discovered that glyphosate, one of the world's most widely used herbicides, may promote the development of bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics. The study analyzed 68 bacterial strains from a protected nature reserve in the Paraná delta and 19 strains from hospitals. All bacterial strains from hospitals showed widespread antimicrobial resistance, with 74 percent being resistant to carbapenems, which are used as a last defense against serious infections. All hospital strains were also highly resistant to glyphosate. All 68 strains from the nature reserve showed at least some resistance to glyphosate, despite the fact that it had never been used in the reserve. Antimicrobial resistance causes approximately 1.1 to 1.4 million deaths worldwide annually. The research suggests that herbicides used in agriculture may have an unintended side effect of promoting antimicrobial resistance among bacteria in soil.