Florida Citrus Trees To Be Sprayed With Thousands of Kilograms of Antiobiotics (nature.com) 143
Long-time Slashdot reader memnock quotes Nature:
In the next month or so, orange trees across Florida will erupt in white blossoms, signalling the start of another citrus season. But this year, something different will be blowing in the winds. Farmers are preparing to spray their trees with hundreds of thousands of kilograms of two common antibiotics to combat citrus greening, a bacterial disease that has been killing Florida citrus trees for more than a decade.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of allowing growers to use streptomycin and oxytetracycline as routine treatments, spraying trees several times per year, beginning with the 'first flush' of leaves this spring. Growers in the state could end up using as much as 440,000 kilograms of the drugs. Although the compounds, which are both used in human medicine, have been sprayed on other crops in the past and applied in limited amounts to citrus groves, the scale of this application has researchers and public-health advocates alarmed....
There is little publicly available science on the long-term use of these drugs in crop settings... Critics are particularly galled because there is also little convincing evidence that spraying will keep the scourge at bay.
One Florida public radio station reports that environmental groups have delivered a petition with more than 45,000 signatures to the EPA, urging them to halt the expanded use of antibiotics.
"The fear is an increase in antibiotic-resistant diseases for humans."
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of allowing growers to use streptomycin and oxytetracycline as routine treatments, spraying trees several times per year, beginning with the 'first flush' of leaves this spring. Growers in the state could end up using as much as 440,000 kilograms of the drugs. Although the compounds, which are both used in human medicine, have been sprayed on other crops in the past and applied in limited amounts to citrus groves, the scale of this application has researchers and public-health advocates alarmed....
There is little publicly available science on the long-term use of these drugs in crop settings... Critics are particularly galled because there is also little convincing evidence that spraying will keep the scourge at bay.
One Florida public radio station reports that environmental groups have delivered a petition with more than 45,000 signatures to the EPA, urging them to halt the expanded use of antibiotics.
"The fear is an increase in antibiotic-resistant diseases for humans."
This can only mean one thing. (Score:5, Interesting)
They want to create Superbugs.
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Not really. Americans are idiots, that's what it means.
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No more American food, drink or - as far as possible - products of any sort for me. Luckily I live across the pond.
Re: This can only mean one thing. (Score:1)
Stupid? No this about new markets. First deliver a problem. Superbugs on your food that kill you. Then sell the solution. Drugs that cost millions for one treatment. It's capitalism baby. Hurah!
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"The long-vanished species 'Homo Sapiens' presents us with a uniquely challenging paradox. Here was a mammal that, individually, displayed some intelligence, creativity and compassion. Yet when combined in masses of millions or billions, they turned out to be the stupidest and most self-destructive species we know of. The root problem may have been that, having evolved to live in small bands of a few dozen at most, they simply never managed to devise stable and sustainable systems of social order or governm
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A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it!
Re:This can only mean one thing. (Score:5, Informative)
It is sad because streptomycin is used commonly for people who are allergic to penicillin.
Re: This can only mean one thing. (Score:3, Insightful)
A stupid one. As time has been demonstrated over and over again market forces doesnâ(TM)t stop company from doing extremely stupid things; it only just about stops them from doing it repeatedly. The problem on the receiving end is that this doesnâ(TM)t help because there will always be a next company along to try again.
Re: This can only mean one thing. (Score:1)
No time hasn't shown that; just the opposite. And it's not about market forces (unless you include everything from legal to regulations). The ones that mess up everything are rare and widely publicized. There are many more that are caught and are fixed well before touching the public.
For all the ones who do something evil, there are literally thousands who do not. Our entire economy is based on this. Don't over blow the wrongs of a small minority and apply it to he majority.
The vast majority of us don't l
Re: This can only mean one thing. (Score:4, Informative)
When you consider that entire industries have grown up to sell products like tobacco, sugar and trans fats, it's obvious that sanctions such as fines or lawsuits have little - if any - influence. Recently Boeing has highlighted that with its grossly negligent handling of the 737 MAX upgrade.
Fines, when occasionally imposed, amount to no more than pocket change. A corporation increases its profits by, say, $2 billion and, when finally found guilty after years of legal proceedings, is fined $1 million or so. The most surprising thing about this sequence of events is that the verdict so rarely elicits hearty laughter in court.
Lawsuits are even more uncertain, as they require social cooperation and the raising of large amounts of money. Even then, as the tobacco vendors and Monsanto/Bayer have demonstrated for years, the issue will be uncertain.
Senior corporate executives are not in the least concerned with morality or the law, unless they believe there is a serious likelihood of them personally being sent to prison. Game theory almost always dictates going ahead to make profits, and worrying about any possible consequences later (if at all).
Lastly, corporations do not normally look much more than one or two quarters ahead. They can't afford to, because the top executives are measured on quarterly results. By the time the vultures come home to roost, they plan to be long gone to even better-paid jobs elsewhere, or - who knows - in government. Maybe regulating industry?
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The vast majority of us don't live in a world where we question & second guess every bite of bread, or breath of air.
Which is perhaps why so many Americans are chronically sick.
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The vast majority of us don't live in a world where we question & second guess every bite of bread, or breath of air.
Which is perhaps why so many Americans are chronically sick.
AC loves and nurtures his/her leaky gut with regular zonulin spraying and gliadin rubs.
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It will save us the trouble of shooting them when the rapture comes.
You won't be put to the trouble. They will already be in the bottom oven, set to "High" with the timer on "Eternity". (Oh wait - actually the timer won't even be needed).
Re:This can only mean one thing. (Score:4, Informative)
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Wouldn't say commonly, there are many other options for most common infections besides streptomycin, like cephalosporins, aztreonam, or a number of non-beta lactam antibiotics. Streptomycin is used (in the US) for rare stuff like tularemia and plague (Y. pestis). Source: I am a physician
Not all Doctors are Physicians, and not all physicians are infectious disease specialists... perhaps going a ways to explain the over-prescribing of antibiotics for every helicopter parent that wanted a pill for his/her flu stricken child.
As to not being the worst pharmaceutical decision, the over prescribing of synthetic opioid painkillers should be grateful for the human predisposition to saturate the environment with the very wonder drugs that have contributed to the human species outbreak population gr
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'"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know".
'Ernest Hemingway'
Presumably because intelligent people are the rarest thing one knows.
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I would not only repeat "commonly," I would say also that a close family member is allergic to penicillin so I already know that it is what likely will be given at a clinic. So far it has been 100%, but I do agree there are other options.
You being a physician has absolutely nothing to do with the accuracy of a piece of information. It is no more or less true when stated with letters next to your name.
I'm just glad we have a local clinic with good doctors. Cephalosporins are contraindicated for people with
I wonder about alternatives (Score:2)
This SOUNDS bad to me, uninformed on the topic as I am.
I wonder what else can be done to stop this multi-year outbreak.
Re:I wonder about alternatives (Score:4, Insightful)
Breeding resistant varieties. There's already ongoing research for a GM variant with spinach genes.
However, I doubt that'll be the end of it. Outbreaks like this are entirely man-made. Just like the Gros Michel banana, if you grow a huge mono-culture of anything, eventually they'll all succumb to the same disease. Having everyone grow the same resistant variety just makes it easier for the next outbreak.
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Oranges are an infertile hybrid between mandarin and pomelo. So most oranges out there are propagated by grafting, which means they're actually the same plant. While it's possible to create new orange trees by hybridizing mandarin and pomelo, that's not commonly done.
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For those that do not know the reason why banana candy doesn't taste like bananas? Is because it DOES taste like bananas, it just tastes like bananas that were once the banana you got in the stores that has since nearly been wiped out by disease.
Nope. Banana candy tastes the way it does because it's cheap. The chemical that gives bananas their primary flavor is trivially synthesized, and in fact it was one of the first artificial flavors ever developed. But it's not the only flavor in a banana, so they don't taste the same.
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Do you happen to know the name of this compound? I was thinking bananadine, but it turns out that's something different.
It's not bananaphone, either ;)
I searched Wikipedia for "artificial banana flavor" and it redirected me to Isoamyl acetate [wikipedia.org].
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The problem is you've only tasted Cavendish
Your problem is that you make unfounded assumptions. I've been to Panama and CR, I've had lots of kinds of bananas.
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Florida man here (Score:2, Insightful)
I live in Florida. Citrus isn't even native here. This is a losing battle and we've sunk far too much money trying to save it. Let's find creative ways to use the land. Free range animal farms. Homes. Amusement parks. Sometimes you just have to admit defeat and move on.
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They want to create Superbugs.
You mean like when the federal government wanted to bring people in with horrible wasting diseases, a few years back? And deliberately did so?
Shortsighted. (Score:5, Interesting)
You want antibiotic resistant citrus greening? This is how you get antibiotic resistant citrus greening.
The rise of super bugs is an issue for everyone.
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You ever hear of this thing called rain?
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This is how you get antibiotic resistant citrus greening.
This is how you get antibiotic resistant everything. You see, bacteria are quick to steal fragments of RNA/DNA from other bacteria.
So once you have a big population of resistant ones, all (different species) bacteria in that area have a good chance of becoming resistant. So enjoy your antibiotic resistant E. coli and pneumococcus...
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Humans and other species which can be infected by bacteria?
The orchards and run-off from them don't exist in alternate universe,
the large scale exposure of antibiotics can trigger MSRA strains
which can infect people who never touch a Florida orange in their life.
Why so polite? (Score:5, Insightful)
Even more antibiotic-resistant bacteria, just one of the wonderful things that happen when you make one of the most corrupt morons on earth your president,
Re:Antibiotics can work (Score:4, Insightful)
If enough antibiotics are used to kill the vast majority of the bacteria, the antibiotic spray is collected, instead of lingering in the environment, and replacement, friendly bacteria were put in their place, it could work.
Scientists can always develop new antibiotics.
You say that as if developing an anti-biotic is akin to developing a new smartphone generation, something you do routinely ever couple of years. It isn't, developing antibiotics is really hard and immensely expensive. The more of antibiotics are rendered useless by stupid and useless stunts like this the harder it gets to develop new ones. And it's not just antibiotics, my local hospital is currently dealing with an outbreak of bacteria that have become immune to not just normal hand disinfectants but also the heavy duty stuff they use to disinfect the operating theatres and this is mainly due to excessive and careless use of these disinfectants.
Re:Antibiotics can work (Score:4, Interesting)
The main problem with antibiotics isn't that we can't make new ones. It's still very hard to create new ones and see them through all the trials. The real problem is that the drug companies don't want to spend the money to do so because there isn't the money in it. Any new antibiotics are going to be used so sparingly that there won't be profits in them even when they will cost a fortune to use.
Even if they came up with an everyday antibiotic most people would take it for a week or two and then stop it. And if they managed to capture all of the common antibiotic use it would seem to be a huge market but people have to stop taking it for cases that are unnecessary. The real market for everyday antibiotic use is under 10% of the current usage.
I got that from a program from the UK I saw in which an infectious disease specialist went into an ordinary practice (office with multiple family doctors) and tried to get people to stop taking antibiotics when they weren't needed. If they insisted even after he spent the extra time explaining why they didn't need them he gave them a prescription. On his first day he managed to get a couple people out of around 30 to change their mind. He had much better luck when he brought in a machine to determine if the cause of the patients condition was a virus or bacteria. But the test took time and money that the practice wouldn't get reimbursed for.
Even now when people are demanding antibiotics unnecessarily the big Pharma companies don't see financial sense for bringing through new antibiotics that university researchers are finding, and they are finding them. I can't see how the companies will ever want to make antibiotics if society can get the message across to only take antibiotics when you absolutely need to. Governments are going to have to get together and create a fund to make sure that we have antibiotics in the future.
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That's scary. Are they replacing doorknobs and handles with copper-plated versions? Placing vinegar-based hand and foot wash stations around the place?
And yes, I'm serious.
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From this comment, you'd almost think that spraying antibiotics on FL citrus hasn't been happening since, well, the previous Administration.
Yeppers, this was first done during the Obama Administration (under "emergency rules", rather than on a "non-
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"Field trials" were done in the previous administration. That's how we know it doesn't work [citrusrdf.org].
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Yep, this is completely the same, except where it is completely different
For fuck's sake, do you Trumpists even read before you post blatant contradictions? Or do you assume the rest of the world is as stupid as you?
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So we have moved on from "Russians" and "collusion" to other topics now, given how much that one failed.
I cannot wait for the next Democrat president. They are going to get ass fucked and hard.
Oh no, not at all, I have always thought Trump is a corrupt moron. And you do realise that even if Trump sits two terms, the statute of limitations on a whole shit ton of what Muller referred to the Southern District of New York and what Cohen revealed during his testimony before Congress will not have expired by the time he leaves office? ... they can still prosecute the hell out of him when he leaves office. So when it comes to ass fucking it would seem to me that Donald Trump may very well have something
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You sound deranged, maybe take a step back?
No I'm. not, the statute of limitations on his various financial crimes, insurance fraud and tax cheating will not expire, even over a possible second term. It does not take much effort to find that out. It is you who are too lazy to conduct a google search, or maybe you are afraid that what you'd find would contradict the sewage Fox News and Sinclair media are pumping into your echo chamber?
As a bonus (Score:5, Funny)
Drinking florida orange juice will also treat syphilis now...
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Which is convenient, given the great font of that disease that is South Florida.
Problems w/Orchards (Score:1)
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... beuracracy ... speed up Humanities Denise
Spooling otters co-rectal by Andriod otto core wrecked.
Another way (Score:3, Interesting)
I think they should go after the psyllid flies which transmit the disease. Psyllid are highly host-specific and usually only feed on a single kind of plant.
Perhaps they could do something like they did when Florida got rid of the screwworm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochliomyia), or perhaps a genetic engineered fly like the projects to eliminate the mosquito.
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Yeah, but they actually want to kill the bacteria, not just feel like they are killing the bacteria.
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Basically it seems to me they are treating the symptom (green oranges) when they should be trying to eliminate the vector. Something benign environmentally, that repels the vector would be a better solution IF such exists.
At least it sounds better to my 'uneducated in this fields' ears....(:
Re: Damned statistics (Score:2)
This boils down to about .15kg (less than a third of a pound for us yanks) per lot.
For drugs typically employed in milligram quantities, this is a hell of a lot. And spreading it out doesn't make things better, it makes the potential resistance issues WORSE.
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One of the worst things you can do is to just too little of such things. It means it's not enough to kill the bacteria, just enough for it to live through it and form immunity to it.
You either use it to kill this generation, knowing the next generation will be less in number but probably immune, or you use it en-masse *with other antibiotics* so that nothing can evolve to survive against all of them quickly enough.
Spraying huge amounts (and that is a huge amount - way more than enough to contaminate your e
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1/2 cup of antibiotics for a typical suburban lawn? I have put less than that amount of dry plant food into water sprayed onto a lawn. I'm unsure if you are joking but your numbers do not give me any confidence in this.
Building better germs (Score:5, Informative)
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Typically the creation of superbugs is due to poor administration of antibiotics - when you don't finish or share your dose, as often happens in poor countries, you end up not killing the problematic bacteria completely and the remaining population can reproduce without competition of the "weak" variation and thus has by selective pressure evolves to withstand antibiotics.
Getting into the water table (Score:2)
This is absurd. (Score:4, Insightful)
Two more common and very important antibiotics about to be rendered useless. Fucking idiot morons. How are they allowed to do this?
Works really good ... until it doesn't. (Score:2)
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omg (Score:1)
Now, America is going to join that insanity?
Trump is just insane, and he is pushing ppl who have absolutely NO science background into horrible places.
You always lie Caffeinated Bacon, always (Score:2)
As that shows, China is using around 80,000 TONS of antibiotics for humans and another 82,000 TONS for animals.
OTOH, America
Caffeinated Bacon, you continue to lie (Score:2)
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Anything to make a quick buck. No matter whom you kill in the slightly longer run.
mod Parent up please. (Score:2)
Antibiotics should be considered a ScheduleII drug (Score:2)
High probability of abuse. They should require a doctor to prescribe the drug for each individual (human, animal, or plant), only after physically examining that individual.
And they will kill 1000 of people that way (Score:3)
Not today, but the and of antibiotics is in sight. Anybody hastening it is effectively a mass-murderer. How can people be this stupid? Oh, right, climate-change deniers, flat-earthers, Trump-fans, ...
The human race as a whole does not deserve to survive. Too dumb.
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stupitity alert: Work with Evolution, not against (Score:2)
This is so stupid that it reminds me of what Florida did in the '70s to all their ornimental palm trees. When a virus was threatening all the beautiful palm trees, somebody got the bright idea to innoculate all the trees with antibiotics. The problem was (1) that antibiotics don't kill viruses, and (2) they didn't even know enough to use a new needle for each tree. They by this monumental act of stupidity, they physically transferred the virus from all infected trees to all the healthy trees. Surprise surpr
As a father of two toddlers... (Score:1)
Then, they turn around and let any farmer with 50 acres of chickens, pigs or now TREES just spray tho
Re: Mueller bomb (Score:1)
You know Mueller suggests no further indictments, right? That Trump wants the report to be public? I think you maybe should prepare for salty liberal tears.