Jane Millar's discovery, as a 17-year-old St Margaret's College student, is being compared with the two schoolgirls who rumbled the makers of Ribena over false claims about vitamin C levels.

Millar's findings of a range of resistant bacteria in chickens that could compromise antibiotic treatment in humans are expected to cause similar waves in medical circles.

The key finding was that the bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics not used in the poultry industry but important for treating serious infections in humans.

Scientists are calling for further investigation and the discovery is about to be published in the New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Science's journal.

Source: Stuff.co.nz