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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Rachel Salvidge

‘Drinking from a fetid pond’: superbug-creating genes found in UK’s largest lake

Aerial view of green-coloured water around a pier on the lough's shore
Toxic algal bloom at Battery Harbour on Lough Neagh in August last year. The bloom, fuelled by sewage and slurry pollution, helps spread antibiotic resistance. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Genes capable of creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs have been detected in the UK’s largest lake, which supplies drinking water to about 40% of Northern Ireland.

Testing of water from Lough Neagh, which has a surface area 26 times bigger than Windermere, found genes resistant to a wide range of antibiotics, including carbapenems – drugs reserved for life-threatening infections when all other treatments have failed.

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