There was no evidence he consumed contaminated meat or came into contact with contaminated animal feces. Although the salmonella strain isolated from the boy matched a strain in one herd, the match apparently wasn t from the family s herd. The researchers reported the boy did not accompany his father on visits to the other herds during the twoweek period before his illness. So how the boy became infected with salmonella is a mystery. The researchers could not rule out unknown environmental factors as the source of the resistant salmonella.
Cattle can acquire salmonella from birds or other wildlife.
There wasn t even any evidence the cattle were treated with ceftriaxone, the antibiotic in question, or any other antibiotics. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is on the rise. The bacteria streptococcus pneumoniae, the cause of most acute ear infections in U.S. children, was susceptible to all penicillins and cephalosporins until 1974. So far, the only cause that everyone agrees about is that physicians hand out antibiotics like candy. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that doctors wrote in a single year 12 million antibiotic prescriptions for colds, bronchitis and other respiratory infections.