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Superbugs Unplugged
A joint project of Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, this monthly podcast will delve into the critical health threat of antibiotic resistance and what drives it, including antibiotic use in agriculture and human health care, challenges and opportunities in R&D, and more. Co-hosts Dr. Lance Price and Dr. Jau Graham will cover a new topic and feature an expert guest every month. Have questions or want to make suggestions? Write to us at SuperBugsUnplugged@gmail.com. Follow us on social media: @battlesuperbugs @UCBerkeleySPH.
Superbugs Unplugged
"Very Promiscuous Orange Trees" A conversation on antibiotic overuse in plant agriculture
You have heard of antibiotic overuse in food animal production, but wait until you get a load of spraying antibiotics on citrus trees.
In the United States, the use of medically important antibiotics on crops has more than quadrupled from 2000 to 2017 and the problem is only getting worse. The EPA recently greenlighted the potential spraying of more than 650,000 pounds of streptomycin, a critically important antibiotic, on citrus crops in Florida and California. This is bad news for antibiotic resistance.
This month, Nathan Donley, a senior scientist from the Center for Biological Diversity, joins Dr. Lance B. Price and guest co-host, Sydney Riess, to discuss why antibiotics are being used in citrus in the first place and how the practice may be contributing to the antibiotic resistance crisis we are in. Maybe its just us, but air-blasting medically important antibiotics out the back of a pick-up truck all over citrus trees seems like a recipe for disaster.
Ready to take action? Add your name to this petition urging the EPA to stop spraying medically important antibiotics on citrus crops:
https://uspirg.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=43218