Manure Happens: The Environmental Toll of Livestock Antibiotics
https://eos.org/articles/manure-happens-the-environmental-toll-of-livestock-antibiotics
Source: By Laura Poppick, Eos/AGU.
Excerpt: The widespread, routine use of antibiotics in livestock farming has generated fears of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that could threaten human health. Now, a new study suggests that threats of agricultural antibiotics extend beyond the realm of human health and into the environment, where they can alter microbial activity as they enter the soil through animal manure. “The fact that there are so many ecosystem processes mediated by microbes makes this pretty interesting,” said Carl Wepking, a biologist at Colorado State University and lead author on the new paper. Wepking and colleagues found that soil microbes consumed carbon less efficiently and released carbon dioxide more readily into the atmosphere when stressed by certain antibiotics. ...As the use of agricultural antibiotics continues to swell with human population growth, potentially increasing 70% from 2010 to 2070, the new findings could have implications when assessing long-term soil fertility and greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural fields. In the United States alone, livestock already receive an estimated 13 million kilograms of antibiotics every year....
Source: By Laura Poppick, Eos/AGU.
Excerpt: The widespread, routine use of antibiotics in livestock farming has generated fears of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that could threaten human health. Now, a new study suggests that threats of agricultural antibiotics extend beyond the realm of human health and into the environment, where they can alter microbial activity as they enter the soil through animal manure. “The fact that there are so many ecosystem processes mediated by microbes makes this pretty interesting,” said Carl Wepking, a biologist at Colorado State University and lead author on the new paper. Wepking and colleagues found that soil microbes consumed carbon less efficiently and released carbon dioxide more readily into the atmosphere when stressed by certain antibiotics. ...As the use of agricultural antibiotics continues to swell with human population growth, potentially increasing 70% from 2010 to 2070, the new findings could have implications when assessing long-term soil fertility and greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural fields. In the United States alone, livestock already receive an estimated 13 million kilograms of antibiotics every year....