Regular doses of antibiotics are the most...

After giving pigs low doses of antibiotics for two weeks, the researchers found a sharp increase in the number of E. coli

Bacteria in the intestines of animals. These bacteria showed great leap resistance to antibiotics. Particular strain of E. >> << Coli found in the study was not pathogenic for pigs or humans. But the results add concerns that regular use of antibiotics in farm animals can spread dangerous and drug-resistant varieties of bacteria throughout the environment and our food and water. Recent data also emphasize the need to find ways to maintain healthy animals without antibiotics. "We would not be surprised that bacteria change in population or that the resistance genes has changed," said Ted Stanton, microbiologist with the strattera price National Animal USDA Research Service Disease Center in Ames, Iowa. "We were a little surprised by how E. coli

population rose in medical groups. We were so surprised that we did a second experiment in culture. And the number has increased by 20 to 100 times. This is a big change. "

" We must be prudent use of antibiotics, "he added. "We will have to work together on this, and we must discover the investigation of alternatives."

Regular doses of antibiotics are the most efficient and effective way to support health and development of farm animals, and drug use has become standard practice for conventional farms over the past 50 years. However, research has long shown that the use of antibiotics leads to increased resistance to antibiotics in animals receiving drugs as well as people working on farms where these animals live. Even when farmers stop using drugs, resistance continued for many years, and mothers pass their drug-resistant flora down to their descendants for generations. For animals shed the bacteria through their bowel faeces, which are often spread in all fields, use of antibiotics in agriculture has raised concerns about the spread of the epidemic incurable whole human population. FDA is now changing, as it regulates the practice. To see exactly what is happening inside the intestines of animals treated with antibiotics, Stanton and his colleagues started with pigs, which have never been subjected to the influence of antibiotics. In a sterile laboratory, researchers are allowed to deliver sows piglets. When separation was completed, they divided the pig into two groups. In their daily chow, six pigs received low doses of a product called ASP250, which consists of three antibiotics commonly used to treat some diseases of pigs and to increase economic growth and productivity. The second group ate the same food, but was unmedicated. Within three weeks, the researchers collected pig feed and use the latest, most advanced technology available for the analysis of intestinal bacteria in the feces. Within two weeks, researchers reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the share group of bacteria called proteobakteriya increased from one to 11 percent in feed for pigs drugs. E. coli

made up the majority, that grows. Bacteria as a medicinal and non-pharmacological pigs had a few genes that are appropriated resistance to antibiotics, according to DNA analysis. However, treatment with antibiotics produced show growth resistance, not only to drugs fed pigs. Genes also flourished, which could resist other types of antibiotics, as well, and researchers now break the head of the details, such as using only a few antibiotics can lead to some resistance drugs. "This is exciting research because it goes beyond that someone did and look at all the ecology of the gastrointestinal tract of animals," said microbiologist Stuart Levy, director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and drug resistance in the Tufts University in Boston. "This shows that low doses of antibiotics can have broad impact on the flora of animals," he said, "and we see changes in the types of bacteria and some characteristics of bacteria using state art genetics and genome sequencing."

A better understanding of these data should lead researchers closer to finding ways of growing healthy farm animals, without resorting to antibiotics. "This information actually takes us a step forward," says Levy. "Maybe we do not need antibiotics. Maybe we could use something else. This may be opening the door to a new way of growing animals. "