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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/29/scientists-find-antibiotic-resistance-blowing-nort/">http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/29/scientists-find-antibiotic-resistance-blowing-nort/</a></span><o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Airborne antibiotic resistant bacteria.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="4" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">Texas Scientists Find Antibiotic Resistance Blowing in Wind<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1">
<font size="1" color="#222222" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:6.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">by
<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/about/staff/eva-hershaw/"><font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">Eva Hershaw</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1">
<font size="1" color="#222222" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:6.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">March 29, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></font></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1">
<font size="1" color="#222222" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:6.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/29/scientists-find-antibiotic-resistance-blowing-nort/comments/"><font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">24Comments</span></font></a></span></font><font size="1" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><o:p></o:p></span></font></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/03/17/IMG_8630_jpg_800x1000_q100.jpg" title=""Thousands of cattle spend their final months at feed yards like this one, located in Hale Center." "><font size="1" color="#008990" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#008990;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="312" height="208" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D06B02.612E8650" alt="Thousands of cattle spend their final months at feed yards like this one, located in Hale Center."></span></font></a></span></font><font size="1" color="#666666" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt"><font size="1" color="#666666" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#666666"><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/03/17/IMG_8630_jpg_800x1000_q100.jpg" title="Thousands of cattle spend their final months at feed yards like this one, located in Hale Center."><font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">Enlarge</span></font></a></span></font><font size="1" color="#666666" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:5.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#666666">photo
by: Eva Hershaw</span></font><font size="1" color="#666666" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#666666" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#666666">Thousands of cattle spend their final months at feed yards like this one, located in Hale Center.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">COTTON CENTER – After years spent studying the dust that
blows across the southern Great Plains, Phil Smith no longer looks at the dark haboobs that routinely rise over Lubbock without a healthy dose of apprehension.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">In a
<a href="http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1408555/"><font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">study</span></font></a> slated for publication next month, he and Texas Tech University colleague Greg Mayer may have made their biggest discovery
yet: DNA from antibiotic-resistant bacteria in cattle feedlots is airborne.<b><span style="font-weight:bold">
</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">For years, scientists have known that humans can contract
antibiotic-resistant bacteria by consuming<b><span style="font-weight:bold"> </span>
</b>contaminated meat or water. The findings by Smith and Mayer indicate that humans could also be exposed to so-called "super bugs" or "super bacteria" traveling through the air.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">"This is the first test to open our eyes to the fact that
we could be breathing these things," said Smith, an environmental toxicologist at Texas Tech.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">Antibiotics are commonly used on cows in industrial feedlots
to treat disease and, more controversially, as a growth promoter added to cattle feed. It is estimated that up to 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States are used on livestock.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">The study may help explain how bacteria that no longer respond
to antibiotics could be spreading and causing hard-to-treat infections in humans. Two million Americans
<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/threat-report-2013/"><font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">are infected</span></font></a> by antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year, while 23,000 die as a direct result of these infections,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">The cattle industry is pushing back, saying the report misrepresents
the risk of super bacteria to human health. Dr. Sam Ives, a veterinarian working with the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, said antibiotic use in the industry is "judicious."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">"If I truly thought that the usage of these products was
putting anyone at danger, I wouldn't be using them," Ives said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">The study focused on feedlots in Texas' Panhandle and South
Plains, each holding tens of thousands of cattle, where animals spend the last few months of their lives gaining weight before slaughter. Feedlots were an ideal place to study antibiotic resistance because bacteria there are exposed to high levels of antibiotics.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">Last year, Mayer and Smith collected dust samples upwind
and downwind from 10 commercial cattle feed yards over six months. They set up high-tech vacuums on the nearest county road, collected particulate matter onto mesh screens, and took the samples to a lab where sophisticated machinery helped them identify the
gene sequences, which Mayer calls the "fingerprints" of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">"The 'aha' moment came when we saw how much more prevalent
resistant sequences were downwind than upwind," said Mayer, a molecular biologist at Texas Tech. "It was not just higher in some of them – it was 4,000<b><span style="font-weight:bold">
</span></b>percent more. It made me not want to breathe."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">The study area is not only in one of the most windswept
stretches of the country. It is also home to a high concentration of industrial cattle feedlots. In the Panhandle alone, 5 million beef cattle are sent to slaughter every year, according to the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">“What we have demonstrated is that this mechanism of transport
is completely viable," Smith said of air travel by bacteria. “We believe that this bacteria could remain active for a long period of time and, given the wind that we have around Lubbock, it could be traveling for long distances."
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">But he and Mayer are the first to admit that their findings
raise a number of questions. Among them: What happens when the DNA of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, traveling on the wind, reaches its destination?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">One of their main concerns is that bacteria harboring antibiotic
resistance genes will transfer antibiotic-resistant DNA to bacteria in the community where they settle, spreading resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">Difficult-to-treat super bacteria have been traced to hospitals
– such as in the case of the recent <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hospital-infections-20150218-story.html#page=1">
<font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">endoscopy super bug</span></font></a> – and, increasingly, to livestock raised on industrial feedlots. The well-known
<a href="http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/21/how-a-mrsa-strain-came-to-flourish/">
<font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">MRSA bacteria</span></font></a>, which jumped from humans to cattle, where it grew resistant to antibiotics, now kills more than
<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/biggest_threats.html"><font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">11,200 people each year</span></font></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">But representatives of the cattle feeding industry, which
Texas A&M AgriLife <a href="http://animalscience.tamu.edu/livestock-species/beef/">
<font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">estimates</span></font></a> at 14 million beef cattle across the state, have rebuffed the Texas Tech findings, deeming them partial and inconclusive. Ives, a feedlot veterinarian who teaches
at West Texas A&M University<b><span style="font-weight:bold">, </span></b>said the study mischaracterizes the threat to humans of bacteria that have grown resistant to antibiotics used on cattle. Many of the antibiotics used on livestock are not used on humans,
he explained.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">"The judicious use of antibiotics as we are using them today
has very little risk to human health,” Ives said. "My children work with me in the feedlot; my wife works with me. Am I concerned for their safety? No, I'm not."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">A growing body of evidence has linked antibiotic resistance
in livestock bacteria to human infection, and antibiotic resistance has become an<b><span style="font-weight:bold">
</span></b>issue of national concern in recent years. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">In 2013, the Food and Drug Administration issued
<a href="http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/GuidanceComplianceEnforcement/GuidanceforIndustry/UCM299624.pdf">
<font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">guidelines</span></font></a> for reducing antibiotic use for growth promotion in livestock, and earlier this year, the Obama administration
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/27/fact-sheet-president-s-2016-budget-proposes-historic-investment-combat-a">
<font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">announced</span></font></a> that it would double funding aimed to fighting antibiotic resistance in its proposed 2016 budget.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">In his 10 years treating patients at his Lubbock clinic,
Dr. Randall Wolcott has seen bacteria grow increasingly resistant to antibiotics used to treat their infections. "We know that antibiotic-resistant genes are becoming more common," Wolcott said. "We use too many antibiotics for animal health, and it keeps
food prices down. Is it a good tradeoff? This research is a piece of the puzzle that will help decide that question.”
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">In the community of Cotton Center, about 40 miles north
of Lubbock, Rocky Stone expressed mixed feelings about the study by Mayer and Smith. "The cattle industry employs a lot of people in this area," said Stone, superintendent of the Cotton Center school district. "Until someone shows me proof that there is a
problem, I'm not going to worry about it."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222">A mile down the road, Elba Saenz swept her front stoop.
She has lived in Cotton Center for nearly 40 years and has always noted the smell coming from the Hale Center Feed Yard, five miles north of her house. “If someone told me that there were resistant bacteria floating in the wind from the feed yard, I would
believe them,” Saenz said. “But even if I am not happy about the feed yard, what am I supposed to do?" she added. "I live here.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><i><font size="3" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222;font-style:italic">Disclosure: The Texas A&M AgriLife
Extension Service is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed
<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/support-us/donors-and-members/"><font color="#008990"><span style="color:#008990;text-decoration:none">here</span></font></a>.</span></font></i><font size="1" color="#222222" face="Georgia"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Deborah L. DeBiasi</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><b><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy;font-weight:bold">Email: Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.virginia.gov</span></font></b><b><i><font size="2" color="red"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic"><br>
</span></font></i></b><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">WEB site address:
<a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/">www.deq.virginia.gov</a></span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Virginia Department of Environmental Quality</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Office of Water Permits
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Industrial Pretreatment/Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Program</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx">http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx</a></span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Mail: P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA 23218</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Location: 629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">PH: 804-698-4028 FAX: 804-698-4032<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
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