From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: CABAL stuff
Keywords: antibiotics
Date: 6 Oct 92 23:24:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: spdcc.1992Oct6.232431.25207
Followup-To: sci.med.nutrition
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
X-Ob-Motss: none

In article <1992Oct6.043351.24473@macc.wisc.edu> anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) writes:
>>_Trust me on this_: the dangers of antibiotic supplementation come not
>>from any residues in the dairy or meat of such animals, but from their
>>effect on the development of antibiotic resistance in the larger
>>bacterial pool in the environment at large.
>
>It's not clear to me what you just said.  How does the antibiotics get spread
>around?  You mean just from their normal use as medicines?

Ah.  Antibiotics are added to commercial animal feeds (pork, beef,
poultry, etc.) in what might be called subtherapeutic doses (parts per
million) because since the 1950's, such low doses have been found to
have a paradoxical (and even as yet unexplained) growth promoting
effect.  The problem is that the bacteria residing in the guts of these
animals become exposed chronically to these antibiotics, and this contributes
to the development of antibiotic resistance.  Many of the bacteria which
reside in the guts of animals, both normal flora or pathogenic, are also
commensals in our own guts.  Plus, these bugs don't stay inside the cows,
pigs, etc.--these animals excrete TONS of fecal material each day teeming
with resistant bacteria, and they quickly colonize the guts of even the
most fastidious agricultural workers, and from there the rest of us.

These antibiotic-resistant bacteria either are or can become pathogenic,
and when a person becomes infected with such a bug, the typical drugs won't
work anymore.  This is a problem.  This has already been demonstrated with
several cases of severe salmonella poisoning being traced to resistant
salmonella originating in chickens.

The other problem with antibiotic-resistant bacteria is that the resistance
can spread to susceptible bacteria, even _completely unrelated_ bacteria,
because the genes for certain forms of resistance aren't in the bugs' main
genetic material, but in free-floating strands of DNA known as plasmids.
Bacteria aren't known for having safe sex, and they like to exchange these
plasmids for fun.  Thus, a bacterium which would have been killed by,
say, penicillin, can receive a plasmid from a buddy and thus become
resistant.

Antibiotic supplementation of animal feed is (I believe) banned in Europe
because of pubic health reasons, but not here.

>Isn't stilbesterol stil being given to beef cattle to get
>them saturated with water just before they go to slaughter?

DES is a banned substance in animals.  Even when it was allowed, it
required a washout period of several weeks.


>Wrt to air pollution, I make no excuse for tobacco smoking, apart from
>pointing out that one run of one city bus puts more pollution in the
>air than all the cigarettes smoked in the town in a week (referring to
>sidestream smoke, not what the smoker breathes).

I don't wish to belabor this, but this isn't the case when you're talking
about enclosed spaces.  Believe me, if idling buses found gay bars congenial
places to hang out, I'd enjoy them even less than I do.  Bars in SF at least
have patios--fie on the Northeast.

-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer