Antibiotic resistance can vary depending on where the bacteria live

New research from the Technical University of Denmark indicates that the outcome of a resistance measurement may depend on the conditions under which the bacterium is tested. Standard laboratory tests are carried out under fixed, uniform conditions, but if, for example, the test environment is altered, the very same bacterium may in some cases be either more or less susceptible to an antibiotic than the laboratory result indicates. The research is published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.