Between 40,000 and 50,000 pounds are sprayed annually on fruit trees - just one pound is enough for one day's treatment of 450 people.
Antibiotic resistance can move from plant diseases to human ones.
Bacteria in this family can exchange genes from plants with similar genes in humans, increasing resistance to drugs like streptomycin and tetracycline. Antibiotics are used to combat bacteria and other diseases in plants and trees. They are typically sprayed, as is done for crop dusting, so the area affected is much larger than just those plants actually sprayed. Antibiotics are dusted on crops in Washington, Oregon, California, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Antibiotics are also used on certain ornamental plants to prevent yellowing - on coconut palms, date palms and chrysanthemums, among others.