These bacteria wear chicken shoes

Right now, we can fight off a wide range of bacterial infections using antibiotics. But those antibiotics are becoming increasingly ineffective, and antibiotic use on factory farms is partially to blame. 

In this episode, Lance Price and Cindy Liu, two public health researchers, explain that we give animals a steady dose of antibiotics in their feed, hoping to stave off disease in cramped, unsanitary conditions. But as a result, the bacteria in these animals develop resistance to antibiotics. But they have some suggestions for how we could make our antibiotics last.

Further listening and reading: 

• Sigal Samuel has written in depth about the antibiotic risks posed by our factory farms.
• Liu and Price’s full study is worth a read, as is this Wired writeup of its findings.
• The episode mentions some of the work that Canada and Denmark have done to combat this resistance problem.
• It also digs into the use of the antibiotic Colistin in Chinese farms, and the subsequent spread of resistance.

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Featuring:

Byrd Pinkerton (@byrdala), podcast producer, Vox

Martha Nelson (@swientist), epidemiologist, National Institutes of Health

Juergen Richt (@juergenricht), professor of veterinary medicine, Kansas State University

Host:

Sigal Samuel (@SigalSamuel), staff writer, Vox 

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