Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 10/21/14


A new study by researchers at Stanford University and the Yale School of Medicine indicates that the use of antibiotics on animals may actually exacerbate the spread of disease — specifically for this study, salmonella infection.

Salmonella transmission involves a minority of infected hosts who are believed to be responsible for the majority of pathogen transmission. These so-called “superspreaders” shed relatively high levels of bacteria compared with most animals infected with Salmonella, but they remain asymptomatic with damped system immunity, the study said.

In the Stanford-Yale study, which was conducted on mice, superspreaders remained asymptomatic when treated with oral antibiotics, but other mice — the non-superspreaders — developed inflammation in spleen cells and also shed high levels of infectious salmonella. The researchers believe that the unique disease-associated tolerance to the antibiotics among superspreaders facilitates the continued transmission of the pathogen.

The researchers tested two antibiotics, streptomycin and neomycin.

Tests would have to be conducted on livestock to see if the same result occurs. If it did, "It would have obvious public health implications. We need to think about the possibility that we're ... impairing the health of our livestock and increasing the spread of contagious pathogens among them and us,” said Denise Monack, senior author of the study, in release from Stanford University.

Additional information on the study is available here.

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