A gene that makes bacteria resistant to antibiotics has been found in Denmark.
Scientists had warned earlier that a gene is found in southern China — called MCR-1 that makes bacteria resistant to a class of antibiotics, known as polymyxins, used to fight superbugs.
Bacteria with the same resistance gene have now also been found in Denmark. The researchers found the gene in a patient who suffered from a blood infection in 2015, and in five samples of imported poultry from between 2012 and 2014.
In Denmark, the gene has so far only been found in bacteria that can be treated with other types of antibiotics.
The gene — detected in common but deadly bacteria such as E coli and K pneumoniae, which causes pneumonia and blood disease — effectively makes these bacteria invincible.