§ Joan RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the antibiotics to which marker genes used in the production of genetically modified crops convey resistance and the medical uses of those antibiotics. [86317]
§ Ms JowellThe antibiotic marker genes and the antibiotics to which they convey resistance that are used in the production of genetic modification of plant crops are Kanamycin; Ampicillin; Hygromycin; Streptomycin; Spectinomycin; Tetracycline; Amikacin and Gentamycin. There are no currently licensed indications for Hygromycin.
The licensed indications for the others are:
Kanamycin:For the treatment of infections due to gram-negative organisms resistant to other antibiotics. It may also be used in the treatment of certain staphylococcal infections due to multi-resistant strains, and in gonorrhoea.Ampicillin:Urinary-tract infections, otitis media, sinusitis, chronic bronchitis, invasive salmonellosis, gonorrhoea.Streptomycin:Tuberculosis, in combination with other drugs; adjunct to doxycycline in brucellosis.Tetracycline:Exacerbations of chronic bronchitis; brucellosis, chlamydia; mycoplasma, and rickettsia; acne vulgaris, rosacea.Spectinomycin:Gonorrhoea caused by penicillin-resistant.Amikacin:Serious Gram-negative infections resistant to gentamicin.Gentamicin:Septicaemia and neonatal sepsis; meningitis and other CNS infections; biliary-tract infection, acute pyelonephritis or prostatitis, endocarditis caused by viridans streptococci or Enterococcus faecalis (with penicillin); pneumonia in hospital patients adjunct in listerial meningitus.