Are vets using too may antibiotics on farms?
By Dan Charles, NPR
In a barn outside Manhattan, Kansas, researchers from Kansas State University are trying to solve the riddle of bovine respiratory disease. They’re sticking plastic rods down the noses of 6-month-old calves, collecting samples of bacteria.
“This bacteria, Mannheimia haemolytica, lives in most cattle,” explains Mike Apley, one of the research leaders. Sometimes, for reasons that aren’t well understood, those bacteria make cattle sick. When that happens, or when it just seems likely to happen, cattlemen deploy antibiotics.
Apley hopes to find out, among other things, whether those antibiotics actually work as advertised. If they don’t, he says, it’s an easy decision to not use them. Farmers save money and meat industry critics, who want farmers to use fewer antibiotics, are happy, too. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”
These pigs, newly weaned from their mothers, are at their most vulnerable stage of life. They’re getting antibiotics in their water to ward off bacterial infection.
Piglets in a pen on a hog farm in Frankenstein, Mo.
Unfortunately, when it comes to antibiotics on the farm, it’s not always a win-win. And when there’s a fight, veterinarians are right in the middle of it, pushed back and forth by conflicting loyalties.
How about us and GMO foods? Did you know the DNA of a seed is altered to create holes in the stomach of pests feeding on your corn or tomatoes? This kills the insect quickly. Studies now show that one of the probable causes of increased human gastritis is the same altered DNA entering human stomachs causing our intestines to leak like the insects. How do you like those apples? GMO labeling is a must!
Sorry Bob but you are very wrong. They change the plants structure so that is immune to pesticides. The pesticides are what kill the bugs not the plants. This allows them to use higher levels of pesticide without harming the plant. It’s also make the plants more mold and mildew resistant. Maybe you should read a little more…
The study most clearly related to the risk of leaky gut was published in February 2012.21 Researchers “documented that modified Bt toxins [from GM plants] are not inert on human cells, but can exert toxicity.” In concentrations that are generally higher than that produced in average Bt corn, Bt-toxin disrupts the membrane in just 24 hours, causing fluid to leak.