Dairy manure, glyphosate, and antimicrobials (copper, streptomycin, and triazole) modulated the composition of antimicrobial resistance at the gene and microbial levels in a processing tomato field.
Deblais L, Derippe G, Horvat M, Ranjit S, Moulia V
Soil Health
PubMedTomatoes on your plate may have been grown in soil where routine farm sprays are quietly breeding bacteria that resist the antibiotics doctors use to treat human infections.
Farmers routinely spread manure and spray chemicals on food crops, but scientists are now finding that these everyday practices change the mix of bacteria living in field soil — specifically encouraging bacteria that can shrug off antibiotics. This study grew processing tomatoes (the kind used for canned tomatoes and sauce) and tested five common farm inputs one by one to see which ones made antibiotic resistance better or worse. Each input shifted the bacterial community in a different way, meaning there is no single villain — the whole toolkit of modern farming inputs plays a role in this hidden problem.
Key Findings
All five tested inputs — dairy manure, glyphosate, copper, streptomycin, and propiconazole (a fungicide) — measurably altered the composition of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes in tomato field soil.
The study tracked resistance at two levels simultaneously: which bacteria could survive antibiotics (culturable resistant bacteria) and which resistance genes were present in the soil, revealing that gene-level changes did not always mirror bacterial-level changes.
Streptomycin, an antibiotic commonly sprayed on fruit crops to control bacterial diseases, was among the agrochemicals linked to shifts in soil antimicrobial resistance gene profiles, highlighting direct antibiotic use in agriculture as a key driver.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Common farming inputs — dairy manure, weed killer (glyphosate), copper, the antibiotic streptomycin, and a fungicide — each shift which antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes dominate the soil of tomato fields, with some combinations making the problem worse.
Abstract Preview
Intensive pesticide use drives antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in agriculture, yet the effects of specific practices remain poorly understood. This study evaluated the impact of dairy manure and agr...
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The tomato is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated from western South America, and may have been domesticated there, in Mexico, or in Central America. Th...