

Co-Founder and CEO at Geltor, Inc.
Noelle Noyes and colleagues have now used next-generation sequencing to describe the antibiotic resistance potential (known as the “resistome”) found in various types of samples collected from feedlots and slaughterhouses involved in producing beef. This showed that the number of different resistance genes in the samples decreased while cattle were in the feedlot and during the slaughter process. Several groups of resistance genes that were detected when the cattle first arrived in the feedlot were not detected at all at the end of the feedlot period. However, some resistance genes were detected throughout the feedlot period, and these tended to be resistance genes that allow the bacteria to evade the same antibiotics that were used in the cattle. In addition, no resistance genes of any type were detected in the samples collected after the cattle had been slaughtered.