What risk do antibiotics pose ? Use of antibiotics in tree fruits is tiny compared with use in animal production

摘要

One of the main drivers behind campaigns to ban the antibiotics oxytetracycline and streptomycin from organic fruit production is the public's fear that their use could reduce the effectiveness of medicinal antibiotics in humans. Dr. Steve Lindow, plant pathologist at the University of California, Berkeley, said there's some justification for that view; there's clear evidence that use of antibiotics in animal production can increase the number of antibiotic-resistant genes in the environment and that these genes can be introduced into human pathogens.