Yahoo – AFP,
21 Oct 2014
Washington (AFP) - Giving animals antibiotics may make them sicker and could lead some to spread even more salmonella than they would have otherwise, US researchers experimenting on mice said.
Washington (AFP) - Giving animals antibiotics may make them sicker and could lead some to spread even more salmonella than they would have otherwise, US researchers experimenting on mice said.
The
findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences could point to
a new concern over feeding healthy livestock low doses of antibiotics to help
them grow and stave off common illnesses, a practice that critics say may fuel
drug-resistant superbugs.
Researchers
at Stanford University School of Medicine gave oral antibiotics to mice
infected with Salmonella typhimurium, a bacteria which can cause food
poisoning.
A small
minority, known as "superspreaders" because they had been shedding
high amounts of salmonella in their feces for weeks, remained healthy. It
appears neither the antibiotic or the illness had much effect on them.
"The
rest of the mice got sicker instead of better and, oddly, started shedding like
superspreaders," the university said in a statement describing the
research.
A previous
Stanford study found that giving non-superspreader mice an oral antibiotic led
to a rapid increase in salmonella shed in their feces.
This study
showed that giving streptomycin, an antibiotic, to salmonella-infected mice,
led most of them to begin shedding high levels of the pathogen in both their
gut and their feces.
Most of the
treated mice also appeared sicker after the antibiotics.
"They
lost weight, had ruffled fur and hunched up the in corners of their
cages," said Denise Monack, associate professor of microbiology and
immunology and the study's senior author.
"They
also began to shed much larger quantities of bacteria."
The same
thing happened when the mice were given another antibiotic, neomycin,
suggesting that the medicine had the opposite of its intended effect.
"If
this holds true for livestock as well -- and I think it will -- it would have
obvious public health implications," Monack said.
"We
need to think about the possibility that we're not only selecting for
antibiotic-resistant microbes, but also impairing the health of our livestock
and increasing the spread of contagious pathogens among them and us."
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