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We've been told its all our fault that antibiotic drugs are losing the arms race to bacteria. We tend to over use the drugs, and the bacteria tend to develop immunity.
However, a story in Ars Technica suggests we aren't just one step ahead, we may actually be a couple steps behind the bacteria:
Genetic analyses of 288 bacterial isolates collected between 1911 and 1969 from 31 countries show that Salmonella developed resistance to an antibiotic several years before that drug even hit the market. The finding suggests that the diarrhea-causing bacteria were somehow primed to withstand the semi-synthetic antibiotic ampicillin before doctors could prescribe it in the early 1960s. Thus, overuse in humans didn't drive the emergence of that resistance.
Instead, the authors speculate that overuse of a related antibiotic—penicillin G—in animals may be to blame.
[...] "Although our study cannot identify a causal link between the use of penicillin G and the emergence of transmissible ampicillin-resistance in livestock, our results suggest that the non-clinical use of penicillins like [penicillin G] may have encouraged the evolution of resistance genes in the late 1950s," Weill said in a press statement.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Tuesday December 05 2017, @07:29PM (1 child)
The really interesting thing about this is that the evidence that there is a financial benefit from using the antibiotics is thin to non-existent. It's a triumph of marketing by the pharma companies.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @09:52PM
The more people doing it, the worse public distrust builds up for everything related. And that includes real problems.
The manufacturers of that "evidence" should take their toys and go hide somewhere, to never soil the name of science again. Because it is widely known and proven a hundred times over in numerous animal species including man, that gut flora distorted by antibiotics promotes accumulation of fat.
You can argue any kind of harm from antibiotics abuse in livestock, but trying to sell the idea that larger slaughter weight for the same amount of feed is somehow not a financial benefit, is beyond stupid; it's self-destructive.