Crops absorb livestock antibiotics, science shows

Consumers have long been exposed to antibiotics in meat and milk. Now, new research shows that they also may be ingesting them from vegetables, even ones grown on organic farms.

“Around 90 percent of these drugs that are administered to animals end up being excreted either as urine or manure,” said Holly Dolliver, a member of the Minnesota research team and now a professor of crop and soil sciences at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. “A vast majority of that manure is then used as an important input for 9.2 million hectares of (U.S.) agricultural land.”

Manure, widely used as a substitute for chemical ... Full Story »

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Dwight Rousu
4.8
by Dwight Rousu - Jan. 13, 2009

The article gives a thorough presentation of a new confirmed pathway of antibiotics into the food chain and a correlary risk of spawning antibiotic resistant bacteria.

health implications for people consuming such small, cumulative doses are largely unknown.

Health officials fear that eating vegetables and meat laced with drugs meant to treat infections can promote resistant strains of bacteria in food and the environment.

Once applied to the land, antibiotics can infiltrate water supplies as it seeps through the soil into aquifers or spills into surface water due to runoff,

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