According to a recent study, zebrafish immune systems deteriorate if one parent has ever used antibiotics. Researchers have found that antibiotics can have negative effects for numerous generations.
Antibiotics were previously heralded as the world’s savior. Since their creation, we have used antibiotics in such vast quantities and so frequently that more and more of us develop resistance, making otherwise typical and non-life-threatening diseases potentially fatal for us.
Recent studies have also revealed that simply being exposed to antibiotics can have harmful effects on the organism being exposed as well as on the organism’s progeny.
Antibiotics may soon pose a hazard to both the environment and public health, according to experts today.
According to the study, the first generation of zebrafish whose parents had been exposed to CTC had weaker antibacterial defenses and fewer immune cells overall.
The third generation was also covered by the latter. When an organism’s immune system is compromised, it is less able to defend itself against viruses and bacteria and is hence more vulnerable to illness.
Animals and humans alike are exposed to antibiotics in large numbers. It is challenging to avoid coming into contact with antibiotics because they are frequently present in wastewater, groundwater, surface water, and even bottled water.
According to Elvis Genbo Xu, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Southern Denmark and a specialist in ecotoxicology, “the half-life of antibiotics is quite short—it is out of the water again after hours or days—but since large amounts are continuously released into our water, we consider antibiotics as pseudo persistent water pollution.”
Previous studies have also revealed that the amount of viable sperm cells decreased by 25% in males of so-called false scorpions (Cordylochernes scorpioides) whose males were treated to the antibiotic tetracycline.
Xu co-authored a new study on the negative impacts of antibiotics that was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The study was motivated by the recent discovery by scientists that antibiotics can have negative effects on the ancestors of those who were exposed to the drugs.
Parvathy Sukumaran 
