Antibiotics

chickens

Journalist Maryn McKenna on the rise of ‘Big Chicken’ — and our current antibiotic crisis

Science

Everyone gets chicken, and the chicken get antibiotics.

Colonies of lab-grown E. coli bacteria similar to a strain carrying a gene that makes it resistant to all known antibiotics. Many bacterial pathogens are developing drug resistance due to the widespread misuse of antibiotics.

Think antibiotic-resistant ‘super-bugs’ are only a distant threat? Think again.

Health
The United Nations General Assembly hall in New York, April 2016.

The UN just took on antibiotic resistance, but can diplomacy help us combat disease?

Economics
Biofilm imaging

Bacterial ‘Hunger Games’ could help in the fight against infectious diseases

Science
Allen Leonard, research associate with Texas A&M AgriLife Research, uses a custom spray rig to apply herbicide to Roundup Ready alfalfa test plots.

Weed-killing sprays may also be killing our ability to fight bacteria

Science
A facsimile of a page from Bald's Leechbook

A deadly modern disease may have an unexpected ancient cure

Medicine

Scientists are pleased with preliminary tests for a new cure for MRSA, the deadly antibiotic-resistant infection. But it’s not a fancy new technology: The new remedy was found in an Anglo-Saxon medical book that’s more than 1000 years old.

A McDonald's 10 piece chicken McNuggets.

Is it a good thing that McDonald’s plans to limit its use of antibiotics in chicken?

Health

McDonald’s in the US will be limiting the use of anitbiotics in chickens. Is this a good thing? Let’s back up a bit. Why do farmers even use antibiotics and what’s so bad about eating a chicken with antibiotics in it?

A newly discovered soil bacterium, Eleftheria terrae, is able to make teixobactin, a new antibiotic that can kill a range of disease-causing bacteria.

Scientists discover a potent new antibiotic

Medicine

Antibiotics, among the most extraordinary drugs of the last hundred years, mostly come from a very ordinary source: dirt. But that source has been slowly exhausted, since 99 percent of the microbes in dirt can’t be cultured in a lab. Now, a group of scientists has developed a new technique for cultivating bacteria on their home turf, so to speak: right in the dirt, where they grow best. The results are a game-changer.

Pills and pill bottle

A world without antibiotics? A new book says it’s coming sooner than you think

Medicine

Mary McKenna’s newest book looks at an issue that could be a matter of life and death for all of us. It’s the question of antibiotic resistance, an issue that is becoming much worse.

Chickens and other livestock grown without the use of antibiotics are a small but growing part of the U.S. market. Perdue is now the largest producer of antibiotic-free chicken in the country, and other big players in the food industry are following the l

Consumers are demanding antibiotic-free meat, and Big Food is starting to listen

Environment

The US government has been slow to respond to the health threat posed by the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock. But consumer concern about antibiotic resistance is growing, and that’s leading some US companies to start changing their ways.