Prevalence and characterization of plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance in various aquatic sources

Ciprofloxacin is a fully synthetic antibiotic developed in 1987 and remains among the most widely used antibiotics worldwide Excessive usage has resulted in small quinolone concentrations found in aquatic sources Environments with subinhibitory antibiotic concentrations and high microbial diversity and nutrient loads (e g wastewater) foster the development of antibiotic resistance genes qnr genes conferring quinolone resistance were first found in 1998 and have since been observed on a global scale