Not how we are all apes but how bacteria can get the better of us? Jathink? From ScienceDaily:
That may sound scarce; however, .” ..as only a small number of strains (<10%) were isolated from farm and urban environments, we were surprised to find one with mcr-1 on a transferable plasmid, which is a relatively high frequency of detection compared to the clinical strains,” the researchers wrote. (Plasmids are independent, mobile genetic elements that can be transmitted from one bacterium to another — sometimes across species, bestowing the traits they carry upon a new bacterial host — in this case, resistance to the last resort drug, colistin.)
“Isolation of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance in S. flexneri from animal feces on a farm suggests that it is circulating via the fecal-oral route at least amongst animals on that farm, and possibly further afield via the food distribution network,” according to the report. “In addition, it suggests that farm environments may be an unrecognized reservoir of S. flexneri.” Paper. (public access) – Beibei Liang, Adam P. Roberts, Xuebin Xu, Chaojie Yang, Xiaoxia Yang, Jinyan Wang, Shengjie Yi, Yongrui Li, Qiuxia Ma, Fuli Wu, Shaofu Qiu, Hongbin Song. Characterization of a transferable plasmid-borne mcr-1 in a colistin-resistant Shigella flexneri isolate. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2018; AEM.02655-17 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.02655-17
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See also: Horizontal gene transfer: Sorry, Darwin, it’s not your evolution any more