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Sharing your fish and chips with seagulls on the beach can harm your health. Researchers have revealed that the birds are carriers of drug-resistant superbugs.
One study found that Herring Gulls in Australia were infected with an antimicrobial resistant bacterium that could cause diseases in humans, such as urinary tract infections and sepsis.
"Seagulls act as ecological sponges and we have designated them as a potential reservoir of agents that can cause human disease," said Sam Abraham, an antimicrobial researcher at Murdoch University.
"This is the first comprehensive study establishing that seagulls in Australia are carriers of E. coli, resistant to drugs, likely to affect humans."
More than 20% of the gulls tested were carriers of bacteria resistant to two antimicrobial drugs commonly used in humans.
The birds found at NSW and Victoria were also resistant to carbapanem, used to fight against antimicrobial resistance infections in hospitals in case of failure of other drugs.
A seagull from the popular Cottesloe Beach in Perth has also resisted colistin, a drug of last resort for combating antimicrobial resistant infections.
Researcher Mark O 'Dea said it was the first time that drug resistance was recorded in an Australian wild animal.
"Gulls could acquire this pathogen through their opportunistic dietary habits, where they get rid of the remaining human waste and could then spread these resistant bacteria over great distances," he said.
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