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Q: Antibiotic Use in Plant Disease ( No Answer,   2 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Antibiotic Use in Plant Disease
Category: Science > Agriculture and Farming
Asked by: milkweed-ga
List Price: $20.00
Posted: 21 Jul 2004 22:23 PDT
Expires: 20 Aug 2004 22:23 PDT
Question ID: 377470
In what countries of the world is gentamicin (aka gentamycin)used or
approved for use in controlling agricultural plant diseases, primarily caused by
bacteria?  Note:  EPA rejected the application of a company from
Mexico (Quimica?) to
market gentamicin in the US for crop protection in the last several
years because this
antibiotic is important in clinical medicine. There is a
justifiable concern that indiscriminate ag use could jeopardize
gentamicin's efficacy in human disease due to selection for antibiotic
resistance in wild type organisms.  Please provide some references.
Answer  
There is no answer at this time.

Comments  
Subject: Re: Antibiotic Use in Plant Disease
From: dr_bob-ga on 21 Jul 2004 22:31 PDT
 
this sounds an awful lot like a homework question

oh and they forgot to mention the ototoxicity associated with
aminoglycosides.  Damn well better not approve this stuff for spraying
on my veggies.
Subject: Re: Antibiotic Use in Plant Disease
From: purkinje-ga on 21 Jul 2004 22:58 PDT
 
I agree with Bob-- I'd be surprised if they allowed this on crops in
any country since aminoglycosides are the main antibiotic associated
with eighth cranial nerve damage. A simplified explanation of why
spraying this on crops could cause resistance is as follows: say that
there is room for a colony of 1000 bacteria to live on a leaf of a
plant. Those could be any bacteria-- many species are vying for the
spot, even some rare species that exist in low number. (Bacteria
secrete antibiotics to kill off certain other species of bacteria--
hence every species of bacteria has certain types of antibiotics that
it is or is not susceptible to). Well, if you kill off all the main
bacteria, but there remains even one bacteria that was resistant to
the drug, then that bacteria will stay on the leaf and replicate until
it occupies the 1000 "available spots." Now that resistant type of
bacteria exists in a much larger number, and would be more likely to
infect another organism. For on-line sources of this, just do a search
for "antibiotic overuse resistance" or something like that.

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