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It's more about bacteria getting antibiotic resistence in animals and those get eventually passed to humans. Antibiotics are pretty much a non-renewable resour
by iwwr 13y ago
It's more about bacteria getting antibiotic resistence in animals and those get eventually passed to humans.
Antibiotics are pretty much a non-renewable resource, the more they're used, the lesser their effectiveness. Using them on livestock, or even excessively on humans would leave humans with a dangerous lack of medical defence against harmful bacteria.
- andyjohnson0 13y ago"It's more about bacteria getting antibiotic resistence in animals and those get eventually passed to humans." This can happen, but most of the bacteria found in animals are species-specific and don't get "passed" to us in the sense that you could "catch" flu or TB from another human. The real danger is "horizontal gene transfer" [1], where different kinds of bacteria exchange genes - including those for antibiotic resistance. This is the main mechanism for the spread of resistance to antibiotics. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer
- Tichy 13y agoA lot of epidemic diseases that plague us come from animal farming. Ever wondered why diseases have names like "chicken pox" or "pig flu"? That effect might even have helped in conquering the Americas, because the conquerors where used to such diseases and the natives where not.
- andyjohnson0 13y agoDirect transmission of diseases (such as flu) from animals to humans certainly can happen: thats why I wrote "this can happen" in my comment. However, its not a significant vector in the spread of antibiotic resistance. BTW, Chicken Pox affects only humans and some other primates. The virus that causes it, varicella zoster, doesn't infect chickens or other fowl. And, being a virus, it has nothing to do with antibiotic resistance either.