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Florida Citrus Trees To Be Sprayed With Thousands of Kilograms of Antiobiotics (nature.com)
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."
Why so polite? I would have started that summary with something much more direct and to the point, like: The brainless muppet that senile old lecher Donald Trump put in charge of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of allowing Florida to completely ruin two common anti-biotics and create yet more antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains ...
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,
Interesting about the "Thousands of kilograms" and "as much as 440,000 kilograms of the drugs". Sounds scary, right?
The article talks about that much being used per year and that it would be sprayed "several times" and later suggests 6 times. Let's use that.
Maybe if taken in perspective, it wouldn't. There are 569,000 acres of citrus groves in Florida. That equates to about 2 million average home sized lots and more like 3 lots if we thing about actual yard space. This boils down to about .15kg (less than a third of a pound for us yanks) per lot.
Let's say that it's a powder with a density similar to powdered sugar. That would mean 120cc per year (about 8 tablespoons) for the average suburban home per year or 20cc (about 1.5 tablespoons) per spray for your entire yard.
This doesn't negate any concerns, but it very much removes the "OMG - 440,000 KILOS!!!" If your neighbor put a tablespoon and a half of just about anything in his sprayer, you probably wouldn't give a damn.
Also worth note: In the same article, it talks about how it breaks down. This might explain why crops would need sprayed 6 times a year. This also lessens (and not necessarily negates) the concern.
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.
Two more common and very important antibiotics about to be rendered useless. Fucking idiot morons. How are they allowed to do this?
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.
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.
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.