Integrons : antibiotic resistance gene capturing systems and their prevalence in bacteria associated with animals

Antibiotics and antibacterials can be classified based upon how they are produced. Compounds referred to as true antibiotics are products of one microorganism that inhibit the growth of another microorganism, while compounds referred to as antibacterials may have the same activity, but are usually produced synthetically. Antibacterials may be simple chemical alterations of an antibiotic, as in the case of tetracycline, or they may be entirely synthetic, as in the case of fluoroquinolones. In terms of their systemic use in animals, both types of compounds are used in the same fashion, thus the difference is mainly one of semantics. As such, unless specified, the term antibacterial and antibiotic will often be used interchangeably.