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Antibiotic contamination of U.S. food supply increasing as Big Pharma pushes more drugs for animals

February 29, 2024 -

Believe it or not, most antibiotics sold in the United States are administered to livestock used in the meat industry. And they are typically given to healthy animals for purposes other than treating sickness – this includes for prophylactic and growth promotion purposes.

As of 2020, upwards of 69 percent of the U.S. antibiotic supply is found in meat that people and other animals eat for sustenance. Since the drugs often persist in meat tissue, many ...

Antibiotic-resistant SUPERBUGS found in imported SHRIMP sold at Canadian supermarkets

April 15, 2022 -

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) discovered this concerning issue by looking at 51 packages of imported shrimp sold in Canadian groceries. CBC reporters purchased shrimp from supermarkets in different parts of the country. The imported shrimp that came with organic labels and Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certifications were then sent to a laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) to be tested for dangerous bacteria.

While Canada has banned the ...

Antibiotic-resistant genetic material found in biosludge spread on American farms, putting pathogenic genes on our food

January 18, 2022 -

The gene is resistant to colistin, also known as polymyxin E, an antibiotic used as a last-resort treatment for infections. Colistin is currently prohibited for use in livestock in the United States as part of an effort to slow antimicrobial resistance to the antibiotic.

However, the new findings reveal that this mitigation effort may already be a failure as resistance to colistin is already widespread. (Related: Early on, the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) ...

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria may be hiding in some leafy greens, warn researchers

August 05, 2020 -

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 20 percent of the two million annual superbug infections are linked to agriculture. However, this estimate only accounts for people who directly acquired the infection from meat. Research on plant food and how they can transmit superbugs is lacking.

"Our findings highlight the importance of tackling foodborne antibiotic-resistance from a complete food chain perspective that includes plant-foods ...

Antibiotics may actually increase risk of flu: The key to fighting it is in your gut, study says

February 12, 2020 -

Antibiotics weaken innate anti-viral immune response in lung cells

Researchers from Francis Crick Institute, a biomedical research centre in London, learned that antibiotics weaken first line immune response in the lungs by altering the microbiome. The damage was observed in the immune system of rodents after a two week course of antibiotics. The antibiotics weakened a first line of defense in the lungs called type I interferon (IFN?/?). ...

Antibiotic resistance isn’t just a “human” problem: Study shows it can be passed along to pets

September 10, 2019 - antibiotic that is used in animals. For the most part, these resistant genes are contained within chromosomes, making it nearly impossible to spread from one species of bacteria to the next. However, recent discoveries have found that these resistant genes are replicating in plasmids, which are mobile DNA pieces that can travel between bacteria populations. The mutation known as optraA has been identified on plasmids. Medical professionals are worried about widespread ...

Antibiotics are no match for drug-resistant TB … unless you add vitamin D

May 09, 2019 - antibiotic regimen with vitamin D successfully boosted the patients' immunity, expediting their recovery.

"By adding vitamin D to antibiotic treatment, we can boost the immune system to help the body to clear TB bugs, rather than relying on antibiotics on their own to kill the bacteria directly," Martineau explains.

"This is a novel approach, as it contrasts with the conventional tactic of developing new antibiotics in an attempt ...

Antibiotics may STOP the growth of new brain cells, concludes study

February 04, 2019 -

Scientists say that antibiotics strong enough to kill gut bacteria are also potent enough to disrupt the development of new brain cells in the hippocampus region of the brain.

The hippocampus is part of the limbic system and is most recognized for its roles in memory formation and spatial recognition. As sources note, the hippocampus is typically the first region of the brain affected by Alzheimer's disease; in fact, damage to the hippocampus is a hallmark ...

Antibiotic use in childhood causes a significant reduction in the quality of the gut microbiome

January 31, 2019 -

The study, which was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, involved researchers from Aalto University, the Broad Institute of MIT, Harvard University, Helsinki University Hospital, and the University of Helsinki.

For the DIABIMMUNE project, researchers tracked 39 Finnish babies from birth until they all turned three years old. During this period, the researchers administered half of the 39 infants at least nine to 15 antibiotic treatments....

Antibiotics kill good bacteria and may worsen oral infections

December 27, 2018 - antibiotics which do more harm than good.

In this study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, the researchers examined the effects of antibiotics on resident bacteria in the mouth that are potentially beneficial against oral candidiasis. They found that resident bacteria effectively reduced infection and excessive inflammation. However, when antibiotic treatment was administered these defense mechanisms were no longer ...

Antibiotics raise the risk of kidney stones by almost 30%, study finds

December 10, 2018 - antibiotics, gut health, and the formation of kidney stones. This is alarming because children aged two years old and below are the most frequent recipients of antibiotics.

For the study, the researchers looked at the medical records of adults and children in the U.K. for 21 years, starting from 1994 to 2015. They assessed previous exposure to antibiotics in almost 26,000 patients with kidney stones and then compared them with a record of more ...

Antibiotics found to actually COMPROMISE the immune system in some cases

September 20, 2018 -

Jason Yang, a postdoctoral scholar at the Broad Institute and MIT, said that antibiotics often interact with cells, especially immune cells, in unexpected ways. Yang, the study's co-first author, added, "And the biochemical context, altered by antibiotics and cells in the surrounding tissue, matters when you're trying to predict how a drug might work in different people or in different infections."

Determining the various impacts of antibiotics ...

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria on the rise; what can you do NOW to stay healthy?

July 22, 2018 - antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The easiest solution is to avoid using antibiotics whenever there's a viral infection. Most of the time, healthcare experts prescribe antibiotics to patients who are infected with viruses. This practice only speeds up the process of turning bacteria into superbugs.

Another solution is simply being hygienic. According to Sprenger, "You can also do more to prevent infections in the first place by ensuring your hands, ...

Antibiotic use in early pregnancy linked to alarming rate of miscarriages

July 18, 2018 -

According to the research team, five broad classes of antibiotics -- sulfonamides, quinolones, metronidazole, macrolides, and tetracyclines -- were associated with a 60 to 100 percent increased risk of suffering miscarriage. However, nitrofurantoin (which is used to treat urinary tract infections in pregnant women) and erythromycin (another widely-used antibiotic) were not linked to higher miscarriage risk. According to the study's lead researcher, current obstetrics ...

Antibiotic resistance to become world’s number one killer by 2050, claims expert

July 10, 2018 - antibiotic resistance?

There are several ways microbes mutate and develop resistance to drugs. They can prevent the target molecule from binding to the antibiotic or simply block the antibiotic from getting into the bacterial cell in the first place, for example. The growth of antibiotic use is playing a big role in the problem, with the use of this class of drugs rising by 36 percent in the past decade.

One big reason the situation is ...

Antibiotics supply lines crumbling as pharma medical system reaches point of total failure

June 05, 2018 -

The Access to Medicine Foundation (AMF) reports that the world is becoming dependent on a few big suppliers for a fragile antibiotic supply, causing shortages in hospitals around the world. Tight supply for intensive care antibiotics like piperacillin-tazobactam has put many lives at risk.

Germany, Brazil and 37 other countries now face shortages of benzathine penicillin G, which is used to prevent the transmission of syphilis from mother to child. The ...

Antibiotics found to be ineffective in treating childhood coughs, new study finds

May 22, 2018 -

It's a story all too familiar: Parents take their sick child to the doctor and expect them to do something to make it better. But for childhood coughs and runny noses, are antibiotics always the answer? New research says that's an emphatic no. While doling out medication may make parents feel better, it does little to actually heal the child in the long run.

Research shows antibiotics aren't the best choice

In a systematic review of ten studies, ...

Antibiotics FAIL: Yaws bacteria develops resistance and is making a comeback

March 05, 2018 - antibiotic azithromycin. (Related: Natural bacteria-killing viruses in the bladder may prove more effective at clearing UTIs than antibiotics.)

"Drug resistance is unlikely to be common, and resistant cases were resolved by a single dose injection of benzathine benzylpenicillin," added lead author Dr. Oriol Mitjá.

The research team suggested implementing multiple rounds of mass treatment covering every member of a community to eliminate latent infections....

Antibiotics in the wild: Usnea, a lichen that grows all around the globe, has been used as effective natural medicine for centuries

January 30, 2018 -

At a time when the world is facing an antibiotic “apocalypse” caused by the overuse and misuse of antibiotic medications, usnea offers real hope in the fight against drug-resistant gram-positive bacteria, especially Streptococci and Staphylococci.

Bio Prepper reports that even those pharmaceutical antibiotics that do still work can cause multiple side effects, including nausea, rashes, “yeast” infections and even a potentially fatal condition ...

Antibiotic use during labor kills healthy gut bacteria in babies, making them prone to illness… and more antibiotic use

December 20, 2017 -

According to their recent studies, giving moms antibiotics during labor can delay the growth of healthy gut bacteria (also known as the microbiota) in newborn infants for up to the first 12 weeks of life. And as the researchers note, early development of healthy microbiota is essential for lifetime health.

Jennifer Stearns, assistant professor of medicine at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and scientist at the University's Farncombe ...