Discussion on:

Drugs help superbugs evolve, study says

Part of the problem is that when people are prescribed anti biotics they take them until they feel better and stop. By not doing the entire course of anti biotics they don't kill all the infection and end up breeding resistant bacteria. Another problem is taking anti biotics for viruses like colds, viruses are not effected by anti bactial medications.

The super bugs thrive well in an environment that is hostile to weaker bacteria; namely the anti biotic environment. If the super bug is left to compete with a minor, but ealier to treat bacteria it may not be able to do so if other bacteria are allowed to compete.

It should also be noted that not all bacteria are malevalent, we have pounds of bacteria in our intestines that help with digestion and even help us stay healthy. There are treatments where a doner's intestinal bacteria is transplanted into a person suffering from intestinal problems; a creepy but effective treatment.

There is an interesting theory that there is a kind of negotiation between a bacterium and the host body that eventually reduces the harm of the bacterium; a process that takes generations. An example is measels, Europeans had immunity but the American natives had no defense and died by the thousands.

If you follow the link in this article to the Independent story, it states that "It is thought that the strain [of salmonella] originated in chickens and turkeys from Ethiopia, Nigeria and Morocco, and that cases in Europe have occurred through imported meat and travel to those countries." There is no evidence that the salmonella superbug was caused by overuse of antibiotics on the farm. The article does say that a new strain of MRSA (a staph infection) was found in milk and thought to have been caused by antibiotics in farm animals, but does not elaborate as to how this was determined.

I grew up on a farm, and I'm not going to say for sure that antibiotic use on farms is not creating superbugs. But if it was, besides creating new superbugs that attack humans the process would also create superbugs from bacteria that only attack farm animals (most bacterial diseases that affect farm animals do not infect humans, even though they are often treated with the same antibiotics). If these new bugs are unstoppable with antibiotics just as they are with humans, then why aren't we seeing massive die-offs of farm animals? There would be nothing to stop an outbreak once it got started. As far as I know, this hasn't happened yet.