And animal feed in China is loaded with additives such as antibiotics and heavy metals, making many farmers reluctant to use manure as a replacement for chemical fertilizers.
Our use of antibiotics may be helping those viral genes to spread. If bacteria are exposed to some types of antibiotics they undergo what is called the SOS response,
which induces the phage to start replicating. Active replication of the phage causes the bacterial cells to burst open,
which is why antibiotics are used not usually to treat E coli infections (see'Europe's E coli outbreak:
time for the antibiotics?'.'One of the many unusual characteristics of strain O104: H4 is that it has resistance genes to multiple classes of antibiotics.
This suggests that wherever the bacteria have come from there has been selective pressure to resist antibiotics.
Heather Allison, a microbiologist at the University of Liverpool, UK, and David Acheson, a managing director for food safety at consulting firm Leavitt Partners in WASHINGTON DC, agree it is plausible that exposure to antibiotics in agricultural use
or in the environment might be enhancing the spread of Shiga-toxin-producing phage. Acheson worked on this question
He says they saw Shiga-toxin-producing phage transfer between E coli in response to sub-therapeutic levels of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin in vitro and in the intestines of mice.
The potential for the creation of new pathogens via phage release is absolutely a factor in the broader environmental danger of overuse of antibiotics.
Agricultural use of antibiotics is a possible suspect. Phage are particularly abundant in the guts of ruminants
The bacteria are relatively unusual in that they produce extended-spectrum à Â-lactamases enzymes that render the bacteria resistant to many different antibiotics.
Patients with E coli infections are treated not typically with antibiotics anyway, because the bacteria are thought to respond to the medication by increasing production of the Shiga toxin,
But antibiotic resistance might have helped the bacteria to survive and persist in the environment. EHEC outbreaks usually only last around two weeks,
In addition to the antibiotic-resistance genes, the bacteria contain a gene for resistance to the mineral tellurite (tellurium dioxide.
Tellurium oxides were used as antimicrobial agents against diseases such as leprosy and tuberculosis before the development of antibiotics.
Antibiotic ban The US Food and Drug Administration is restricting some uses of a major class of antibiotic in farm animals,
On 4 january, the agency banned unapproved uses of cephalosporins in cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys a ban that it had ordered already in 2008,
Rules tighten on use of antibiotics on farmsthe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now moving to protect key antibiotics known as cephalosporins,
which are used in humans to treat a range of infections, including pneumonia. On 4 Â January, the agency said that it would prohibit certain uses of cephalosporins in farm animals including cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys,
because overuse of the drugs is"likely to contribute to cephalosporin-resistant strains of certain bacterial pathogens.
If cephalosporins become ineffective in treating human diseases, the FDA said, "doctors may have to use drugs that are not as effective,
or that have greater side effects. Source: National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System/FDATHE new rules, to come into effect on 5 Â April,
restrict veterinary surgeons to using the two cephalosporin drugs specifically approved for food-producing animals ceftiofur and cephapirin and ban prophylactic use.
Most antibiotic classes are used both in animals and in humans, so the FDA is also considering tightening controls on all classes of antimicrobials used on farms.
Its new antibiotic-resistance strategy, published in November  2011, calls on EU countries to ensure that antibiotics are only available on prescription,
and to strengthen surveillance systems to track and report cases of resistance (see Nature http://doi. org/cshmhv;
) Although it is accepted widely that overusing antibiotics can be a major driver of resistance in microbes,
the evidence linking antibiotic use in farm animals with resistance in humans is still controversial (A e. Mather et al.
Antibiotics are sold like sweets, Vallat told Nature.""There is no control and this is a major risk to animal and human health
because sulphadoxine and pyrimethamine were used to treat the disease before the wormwood wonder drug artemisinin became the gold standard cure.
The development of new countermeasures, from diagnostics to antibiotics and antivirals to respirators, will help protect human lives in the face of new bugs and superbugs.
and inserted requirements that drive up the cost of developing new antibiotics. A robust public health system is only as strong as the tools available,
The use of hormones, antibiotics and pesticides, as well as animal diseases and even terrorism pose risks. What steps would you take to ensure the health, safety and productivity of America s food supply?
and minimize pesticides and antibiotics in our food. I set the ambitious goal to increase the number of certified organic operations by 20 percent â oe
And my administration is taking steps to limit antibiotic use for livestock. This will help ensure that antibiotics are used only address diseases and health problems
and not for enhancing growth and other production purposes. And I will continue to work on food safety issues to ensure that public health is the priority in our food safety system.
or agricultural fields fertilized with pig manure are more likely to become infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria,
Many researchers think that widespread use of antibiotics to encourage growth in farm animals fuels the proliferation of MRSA and other drug-resistant bacteria.
The latest findings suggest that manure is helping antibiotic resistance to spread, says Joan Casey, an environmental-health scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health in Baltimore, Maryland,
including resistance stemming from the controversial practice of giving antibiotics in feed to promote animal growth.
"Meat sale and meat trade across borders is making it harder to control antibiotic-resistant pathogens at a local scale
#2 Million Americans Annually Get Infections That Antibiotics Can't Curemore than two million Americans get sick every year with infections that defy modern antibiotics.
when we go there to look for a lifesaving antibiotic CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden said during a conference call for reporters.
What are antibiotic-resistant infections? How do they arise? Antibiotic-resistant infections develop from using antibiotics.
As the CDC report says Antibiotics are limited a resource. The more that antibiotics are used today the less likely they will still be effective in the future.
It's worse if people take antibiotics when they don't need them or when doctors prescribe unnecessary antibiotics to their patients.
Farmers also contribute to the problem by feeding antibiotics to their livestock. When people (or animals) take antibiotics they don't need the medicines kill off most bacteria
while leaving behind a few germs that are naturally genetically resistant to the treatment. Over time antibiotic use breeds more and more resistant germs.
In addition the weird biology of bacteria means that they are able to easily share genes with one another further spreading antibiotic resistance.
People can harbor their own resistant bacteria get infected with resistant bacteria from another person or encounter resistant bacteria from unhygienic processes in food production.
Who's to blame? Up to half of the antibiotics doctors prescribe to patients aren't needed
or aren't prescribed correctly according to the CDC report. Farmers use antibiotics to cure or prevent diseases in their livestock.
In addition some farmers give their cows pigs and chickens low doses of antibiotics to make them grow faster.
This is unnecessarily and should stop the CDC says. What are the worst infections? The CDC divided the resistant bacteria it knows about into three categories:
urgent serious and concerning. The urgent pathogens include: Clostridium difficile and drug-resistant enterobacteriaceae are generally infections people get
while they are in hospitals from their catheters breathing machines and other invasive equipment. What is the CDC going to do about it?
Most importantly it will need to change how people use antibiotics. You don't get<i>Clostridium difficile </i>from the things you describe above (catheters'breathing machines')as far as I'm aware.
Maybe its time to stop injecting livestock with antibiotics and eating them. Maybe its time for in vitro meat t
Antibiotics also came into play in the 1940's but that only treats bacterial critters and not viruses.
#FDA Aims To Reduce Use Of Antibiotics For Fattening Farm Animalsthe U s. Food and Drug Administration is asking veterinary drug companies to voluntarily agree to make it illegal to feed healthy animals some antibiotics.
If the antibiotic is on the FDA s list of drugs that are used related to drugs to fight infections in people including everything from bronchitis to urinary tract infections to Lyme disease to infections after surgeries then the agency is asking companies to stop their use for fattening up pigs chickens
and other animals people eat. The move is meant to reduce the amount of antibiotics farmers feed to food animals.
âÂ#Âoewith these changes there will be fewer approved uses for animal antibiotics and the remaining uses will be under tighter controlã¢Â# Michael Taylor the FDA s deputy commissioner for foods
and veterinary medicine said in a conference call for reporters. Scientists have warned long that the constant use of antibiotics in farm animals is a threat to human health
but U s. agencies haven't taken a lot of official action on the issue. After talks with industry folks FDA officials believe companies will comply with the new program.
which would require the agency to evaluate every antibiotic individually Taylor added. Critics of the program say it may not make much of a dent in how antibiotics are used on animal farms.
âÂ#Âoeeven if it were observed by the industry there s no guarantee that the usage profile for these drugs would changeã¢Â# Keeve Nachman who studies food production at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health tells Popular Science.
For many antibiotics the dosages for both indications are similar. Why cut down on antibiotic use?
Concern about the rise of antibiotic-resistant microbes is the primary reason. Such microbes can give people diseases that no modern antibiotics are able to cure.
One recent U s. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 2 million Americans get antibiotic-resistant illnesses every year
and 23000 Americans die from them. These illnesses evolved recently after decades of unnecessary antibiotic use among farmers doctors and patients.
On many farms animals eat low doses of antibiotics mixed into their food either to make them grow faster
or grow more on less food. It's not clear exactly why low-dose antibiotics fatten animals up
although one study done in mice hints that it's got something to do with changes to the animals'gut microbes.
Farmers and farming companies don t need prescriptions from veterinarians to get drugged feeds; they get them from feed stores.
but leave behind so-called superbugs that are able survive a round of antibiotics. The low doses used to promote growth are especially prone to leaving superbugs behind.
and years of antibiotic use and you eventually breed large populations of superbugs. Getting farms to stop using antibiotics unnecessarily would be a major step toward slowing the evolution of superbugs.
The argument now is whether the FDA s new program actually does this. Critics worry that farms will continue to use antibiotics widely
while complying with the FDA's request to the letter. This blog post from National Resources Defense Council lawyer Avinash Kar summarizes that argument.
The National Resources Defense Council has sued the FDA over the use of antibiotics in farm animals.
when companies agree to the new FDA program non-growth uses of antibiotics should require the equivalent of a prescription from a veterinarian.
âÂ#Âoeit s a big shift from the current situationã¢Â# in which animal antibiotics are available to farming companies over-the-counter Taylor said.
Others are not so sure veterinarians will act as good gatekeepers to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use.
My question to you is do you have antibiotics that kill resistant bacteria's and viruses?
i have nearly 50 different organic antibiotics and all i ever get is slag from online posters when
When farmers encounter plant pests their first response would be to kill it by using pesticides herbicides or antibiotics.
However Dr. Dela Cruz claims that his treatment system works more like a vaccine than an antibiotic:
Too weak a signal means there might not be enough of the active ingredient to be effective (in antibiotics low doses could lead over time to drug-resistant microbes.
I have much faith in the quality that can be attained via lab-grown meat (eg. lack of antibiotics filler pollutants or pathogens.
You don't have to worry about all the hormones and antibiotics. Real Vegan Cheese also claims their product could address future food scarcity concerns
Then they fed two groups of the animals antibiotics killing off many of their gut microbes.
It also comes as no shock that fungi create chemicals of interest to drug developers as fungi have spawned drugs from penicillin to Lovastatin.
Which means it could one day possibly pave the way for new antibiotics. Several of the chemicals isolated from the fungi also showed strong activity against human breast cancer cells. a
#Extensive use of antibiotics in agriculture creating public health crisis, study showsciting an overabundance in the use of antibiotics by the agriculture
and aquaculture industries that poses a threat to public health economics professor Aidan Hollis has proposed a solution in the form of user fees on the nonhuman use of antibiotics.
In a newly released paper published in the New england Journal of Medicine Hollis and co-author Ziana Ahmed state that in the United states 80 per cent of the antibiotics in the country are consumed in agriculture and aquaculture for the purpose of increasing food production.
This flood of antibiotics released into the environment--sprayed on fruit trees and fed to the likes of livestock poultry and salmon among other uses--has led bacteria to evolve Hollis writes.
Mounting evidence cited in the journal shows resistant pathogens are emerging in the wake of this veritable flood of antibiotics--resulting in an increase in bacteria that is immune to available treatments.
If the problem is unchecked left this will create a health crisis on a global scale Hollis says.
Hollis suggest that the predicament could be alleviated greatly by imposing a user fee on the nonhuman uses of antibiotics similar to the way in
Modern medicine relies on antibiotics to kill off bacterial infections explains Hollis. This is incredibly important. Without effective antibiotics any surgery--even minor ones--will become extremely risky.
Cancer therapies similarly are dependent on the availability of effective antimicrobials. Ordinary infections will kill otherwise healthy people.
Bacteria that can effectively resist antibiotics will thrive Hollis adds reproducing rapidly and spreading in various ways.
If you become infected with resistant bacteria antibiotics won't provide any relief. While the vast majority of antibiotic use has gone towards increasing productivity in agriculture Hollis asserts that most of these applications are of low value.
It's about increasing the efficiency of food so you can reduce the amount of grain you feed the cattle says Hollis. It's about giving antibiotics to baby chicks
because it reduces the likelihood that they're going to get sick when you cram them together in unsanitary conditions.
The real value of antibiotics is saving people from dying. Everything else is trivial. While banning the use of antibiotics in food production is challenging establishing a user fee makes good sense according to Hollis. Such a practice would deter the low-value use of antibiotics with higher costs encouraging farmers to improve their animal management methods
and to adopt better substitutes for the drugs such as vaccinations. Hollis also suggests that an international treaty could ideally be imposed.
Hollis notes that in the U s a move has been made to control the nonhuman use of antibiotics with the FDA recently seeking voluntary limits on the use of antibiotics for animal growth promotion on farms.
Is the Canadian government going to take any action to control the use of antibiotics for food production purposes?
Health Canada is trying to monitor the use of antibiotics but has virtually no control over use.
because in 2006 the European union prohibited the feeding of antibiotics to livestock as growth promoters.
whether probiotics could substitute for antibiotics by reducing pathogen populations in the intestines says first author Carmen Bednorz of Freie Universitat Berlin Germany.
Here Pseudomonas produce antibiotics that plants use to defend themselves against fungi trigger the rooting process
#More and more Danes infected with MRSA bacteriain 2012 1556 Danes were found positive with methicillin-resistant staphylococci--MRSA.
FACTSMRSA bacteria MRSA is short for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. When bacteria are exposed to antimicrobial agents they protect themselves by developing resistance.
and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health have for the first time found an association between living in proximity to high-density livestock production and community-acquired infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus commonly known as MRSA.
According to the U s. Food and Drug Administration nearly 80 percent of antibiotics in the United states are sold for use in livestock feeds.
and applied to crop fields contains antibiotic-resistant bacteria resistance genes and about 75 percent of the antibiotics consumed by the animals.
For the study researchers utilized Geisinger's sophisticated electronic health record system to identify patients with MRSA infections and skin and soft tissue infections.
The researchers who conducted the genetic analysis of strains of Staphylococcus aureus known as CC97 say these strains developed resistance to methicillin after they crossed over into humans around forty years ago.
Today methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strain CC97 is an emerging human pathogen in Europe North and South america Africa and Asia.
Perhaps the most problematic new capability the human strains acquired is the ability to resist methicillin an important antibiotic for fighting staphylococcal infections.
which indicates that the bacteria acquired resistance after they crossed over into humans presumably through exposure to antibiotics prescribed for treating human infections.
This sequence of events contrasts with the case of A s. aureus strain from pigs Fitzgerald points out since a study in 2012 revealed that MRSA ST398 strains evolved the ability to resist methicillin before they crossed over into humans.
and antibiotic treatment remains the standard approach for managing these infections. The current rise of bacterial resistance to antibiotics underscores the importance of developing another approach.
Another recent study led by Tufenkji in collaboration with Mcgill professor Showan Nazhat a biomaterials expert at the Department of Mining
Cutter suggested that concerns about antibiotic resistance and animal-welfare issues in large animal-agriculture operations that supply food to supermarket chains may explain why consumers are switching to locally grown and locally processed foods.
#Do antibiotics in animal feed pose a serious risk to human health? As fears rise over antibiotic resistance two experts on The british Medical Journal website today debate
whether adding antibiotics to animal feed poses a serious risk to human health. David Wallinga from Keep Antibiotcs Working:
the Campaign To end Antibiotic Overuse in Animal Agriculture believes that physicians and policymakers have overlooked the critical role played by the ongoing overuse of antibiotics in livestock and poultry.
He understands the interest in creating a pipeline of new antibiotics but says overall reductions in antibiotic use should come first.
He points to data showing that in 2009-11 72%of all US sales of antimicrobials comprised those routinely added to water or animal feed.
These he says are feed additives in given routinely without a prescription at lower than therapeutic concentrations for purposes such as growth promotion
and to control disease in otherwise healthy animals being raised in crowded or unhygienic conditions that promote disease.
and drug industries routine antibiotics are not necessary for animal health. He points to Denmark the world's leading pork exporter
Based on a growing body of evidence almost every European and North american public health authority agrees that routine antibiotic use in animal food production likely worsens the epidemic of resistance he writes.
He explains that some countries such as The netherlands have banned routine use of antibiotics in animal feed mainly over concerns about an increase in MRSA.
But Burch argues that use of antibiotics in feed was associated not with an increase in MRSA because no products
It is mainly older antibiotics that are licensed for use in feed in the UK he explains.
but says given the thorough risk assessments concerning antimicrobial resistance by the regulatory authorities it is considered highly unlikely that the use of adding antibiotics to feed poses a serious risk to humans especially in comparison with the extensive use of antibiotics directly in human patients.
#Workers at industrial farms carry drug-resistant bacteria associated with livestocka new study found drug-resistant bacteria associated with livestock in the noses of industrial livestock workers in North carolina but not in the noses of antibiotic-free livestock workers.
which include the well-known bug MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). New Staph strains are emerging in people who have close contact with livestock animals
or indirect contact with livestock only industrial workers carried antibiotic-resistant Staph with multiple genetic characteristics linked to livestock.
and raises concern about antibiotics use in livestock production. Many industrial livestock operations raise animals in large conferment buildings
and use antibiotics including non-therapeutically in animals'feed and water to promote their growth.
Like most illnesses caused by bacteria S. aureus infections are treated with antibiotics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention some Staph cannot be killed by antibiotics meaning they are resistant.
MRSA is a strain of Staph bacteria that is resistant to methicillin and certain first-line antibiotics called beta-lactams.
Infections with drug-resistant strains like MRSA can be particularly difficult to treat. The study was based on interviews
At industrial livestock operations animals are grown in large confinement buildings using antibiotics. At antibiotic-free livestock operations animals are grown without the use of antibiotics typically outdoors on pasture.
Researchers tested the S. aureus isolated from nose swabs for resistance to a range of antibiotics
and for genetic markers considered to indicate that the bacteria may have come from livestock. This study shows that these livestock-associated strains are present among workers at industrial livestock operations
and that these strains are resistant not just to methicillin but to multiple antibiotics--including antibiotics that are used to treat human infections said Christopher Heaney Phd corresponding author of the study and assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public health. Workers were not experiencing Staph infections at the time of the study but when antibiotic resistant bacteria do cause infections they can be harder to treat.
Researchers found that S. aureus that were multidrug-resistant were roughly twice as prevalent among individuals exposed to the industrial compared to the antibiotic-free livestock operation environment
and S. aureus that were resistant to tetracycline--an antibiotic that has been used in industrial livestock production
since the 1950's--were 19 times as prevalent among industrial compared to antibiotic-free livestock operation workers.
Livestock-associated methicillin and multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus is present among industrial not antibiotic-free livestock operation workers in North carolina was written by Jessica L. Rinsky Maya Nadimpalli Steve Wing
Devon Hall Dothula Baron Lance B. Price Jesper Larsen Marc Stegger Jill Stewart and Christopher D. Heaney.
We have been seeing an increase in the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria that cause pneumonia (also called BRD) in cattle said Brian Lubbers assistant professor in the diagnostic lab based at Kansas State university.
but almost all of the antibiotics that we use to treat pneumonia in cattle. BRD is one of the most important diseases of feedlot cattle particularly said Lubbers adding that the economic toll from the disease has been estimated to approach $1 billion annually in the United states alone
To determine whether the microbes were in fact giving the rotation-resistant beetles an advantage the researchers dosed the beetles with antibiotics.
Low-level exposure to antibiotics had no effect on any of the beetles but at higher doses the rotation-resistant beetles'survival time on soybean leaves fell to that of the nonresistant beetles.
Antibiotics also lowered the activity of digestive enzymes in the rotation-resistant beetles'guts to that of their nonresistant counterparts.
and phosphorus runoff and research shows these systems can also retain pesticides antibiotics and other agricultural pollutants.
whether repeated courses of antibiotics can affect the brain as some have speculated. Antibiotics are used extensively in neonatal intensive care units
and in childhood respiratory tract infections and such suppression of the normal microbiota may have longterm consequences on brain development.
Conventional antibiotic-free and USDA Organic chicken samples were purchased from 10 U s. metropolitan areas between December 2010
A simple analogy is that it's like taking antibiotics in case you get ill rather than
As there is a growing pressure to reduce the use of antibiotics in farming new products are needed to maintain animal welfare standards reduce the huge costs of necrosis in poultry
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