Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Antibiotic ban cuts drug resistant bugs [New Scientist]: A WHO report published on Wednesday concludes that a voluntary ban by Danish farmers on growth promoters in chicken and pigs cut antibiotic resistance in bacteria in the animals by over 90 per cent, with little cost to farmers and no increase in the bacterial burden of meat. The report comes just weeks after the European Union's agriculture ministers adopted a total ban on antibiotic growth promoters in animals from 2006. A well known [though not by most people], well understood problem, that turns out to be significantly solvable. Good news! 9:09:37 PM    comment []  trackback []

A word from our sponsor What the 'balanced aquarium' can teach us about running an industrial economy: Natural systems use light to pump nutrients into the trophic web, and the web stores them in biomass, loses them to the air or sediments, or exports them to other systems. -- [The Cichlid Room Companion] Say all you want about 'post-industrial;' it's still industrial. And the laws of nature still apply. 7:52:07 PM    comment []  trackback []