New paper of interest: Unpacking factors influencing antimicrobial use in global aquaculture

This paper may be of interest: Unpacking factors influencing antimicrobial use in global aquaculture.    Henriksson, P.J.G., Rico, A., Troell, M. et al. Sustain Sci (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-017-0511-8 Abstract: Global seafood provides almost 20% of all animal protein in diets, and aquaculture is, despite weakening trends, the fastest growing food sector worldwide. Recent increases in production have …

Hospital acquired infections – the good news and the super news (but not super in a good way) 

There are a bunch of stories starting to come out based on some press and paper releases from the CDC yesterday. One that seems well done is this from CIDRAP: CDC notes progress, threat regarding hospital superbugs | CIDRAP. Today’s CDC report focused on the six most concerning antibiotic-resistant bacteria and found better progress against them …

California Limits Antimicrobials in Livestock

I’m very excited about this news story. California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill requiring antimicrobial drugs to be available only through veterinary prescription and not simply for growth promotion. It’s a small step in limiting widespread resistance from overuse of antibiotics, but hopefully it serves as an example to other states and nations. China …

Antimicrobial Films for Implants

Researchers at Inserm/Strasbourg University have developed an antimicrobial film for implants. One of the biggest problems with implants is that they can provide ideal breeding grounds for pathogens, causing inflammation in the surrounding tissue and subsequent rejection of the implant. Often, this is avoided by prescribing patients antibiotics or coating implants in them, which of course have …

Antimicrobial soap found to be essentially useless

A study appearing yesterday in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy by Min-Suk Rhee et al. found that while triclosan hand soap did kill bacterial after 9 hours, most people wash their hands for about twenty seconds and then rinse the soap off. In these circumstances, the antibacterial properties of the soap won’t do anything. Triclosan works …

A plea to stop ignoring microbial ecosystem effects of antimicrobial agents

Well, the stories just keep coming about antimicrobial agents we can use to kill off some pathogen in our environment.  Today’s is about plasma – yes plasma – and how it can deactivate norovirus in the environment: ‘Cold plasma’ kills off norovirus from the BBC.   The article discusses a new study in the journal mBio.  Some key …

“The Dirt on Antimicrobials”

Bill Walsh of The Healthy Building Network has posted a story on the subject,”the Dirt on Antimicrobials” that covers the health effects concerns from the chemicals themselves but does not address the currently popular subject of the health harm or benefits from the presence of and exposures to the multitude of microbes in, on, and …