The study is published in the January edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases
Swedish scientists have found evidence that drug-resistant bacteria have spread much further into wild animal populations than previously thought. Researchers on an arctic expedition found that birds living on the tundra were carrying antibiotic-resistant bacteria. 
The researchers took samples from birds in northeastern Siberia, northern Alaska and northern Greenland. These were cultivated in laboratories that had been installed onboard an icebreaker, before being further analyzed at the Central Hospital in Vaxjo, Sweden.
Dr Bjorn Olsen, a professor of infectious diseases at Uppsala University, said: "We were extremely surprised. We took samples from birds living far out on the tundra that had no contact with people. This further confirms that resistance to antibiotics has become a global phenomenon and that virtually no region of the earth, with the possible exception of the Antarctic, is unaffected."
The researchers believe that migrating birds may have passed through regions such as Southeast Asia, where antibiotic resistance is a problem, and carried the resistant bacteria back to the arctic.
Jonas Bonnedahl, a physician at the University of Kalmar, said: "We already knew that birds in the western world can be carriers of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, but it's alarming to find that these bacteria exist among birds out on the tundra."
"Our findings show that resistance to antibiotics is not limited to society and hospitals, but is now spreading into the wild. Escalating resistance to antibiotics over the last few years has crystallized into one of the greatest threats to well-functioning health care in the future."
The study, Dissemination of multidrug-resistant bacteria into the Arctic, is published in the January edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
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