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Re:Biopharma has abandoned antibiotic development by Johnny555 on Monday December 16, 2019 @08:26PM (#21809572)
Does that make any practical difference for animals meant for consumption like beef cattle, hogs, or chickens? You can give them all the antibiotics you want until a few days before slaughter.
Re:Biopharma has abandoned antibiotic development by vibrio on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @02:09PM (#21817396)
It does. The animals will be colonized by bacteria that have "learned" to deal with all those antibiotics you gave. That resistance is easily transmitted.
Re:Biopharma has abandoned antibiotic development by Johnny555 on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:45PM (#21819240)
I understand the problem with antibiotic resistance, but telling a farmer that an animal treated by antibiotics can't enter the food supply until after treatment ends doesn't really solve the problem when it comes to animals raised as food -- the farmer can treat the animal with antibiotics for nearly all of its life, only stopping the treatment just before slaughter.
Re:Biopharma has abandoned antibiotic development by vibrio on Thursday December 19, 2019 @09:58AM (#21835398)
Totally agreed. I'm naive to much around Ag/Husbandry. If that's what farmers do, that is a concern. From a microbiology point of view, the concept that "washing out" the drug before slaughter improves anything is flawed. It will be a reservoir of smoldering antibiotic resistance as long as that practice persists.