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The ECO-SHADOW Concept — A New Way of Following Environmental Impacts of Antimicrobials

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Abstract

Microorganisms are the dominating part in all ecological systems (ecosystems) and it is well recognised that antimicrobial agents (for convenience, later called antibiotics) are Mother Nature’s own weapons for establishment and maintenance of all microbial ecosystems. Consequently, antibiotic resistance is a natural part of the regulatory factors in any ecosystem, and genes coding for resistance have existed as long as microbes have been around. However, during our increased use of antibiotics over half a century, we have selected more and more bad genes in more and more microbial communities. We got what we have asked for and what we have deserved.

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Midtvedt, T. (2001). The ECO-SHADOW Concept — A New Way of Following Environmental Impacts of Antimicrobials. In: Kümmerer, K. (eds) Pharmaceuticals in the Environment. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04634-0_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04634-0_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-04636-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-04634-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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