10 Oct 2006
Poultry consumption, handling are risk factors for antibiotic resistance in humans

Seems like a awful lot of money spent (over a million dollars), but I suppose it's a Good Thing ™ to finally have a controlled study that proves what common sense has been telling us for years.

For the record, my poultry and eggs are 100% antibiotic free.

Antibiotic use as a livestock growth promoter increases the risk of human antibiotic resistance, a Marshfield Clinic researcher and his colleagues have found. Results of the nearly $1.4 million three-year study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga., are published in the Nov. 1 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

(link) [EurekAlert!]

16:46 /Agriculture | 2 comments | permanent link

China may be losing patience with North Korea

China is the real pressure point North Korea was aiming at with it's nuke test, not the US. Think about it: China is their neighbor and sole supplier of energy, as well as a major supplier of food aid. China likes using the DPRK as a counterweight to the other regional powers: Japan, South Korea, the US and Russia. But China most assuredly does not want a nuclear North Korea - they know as well as anyone that Kim Jong Il is an unstable psychopath.

They also understand that if things start to go badly in North Korea there'll be a flood of refugees over the Yalu that'll make 11 million Mexicans coming across our southern border look like a Sunday stroll by a bunch of tourists.

And they warned Kim last Thursday not to conduct a test. Which warning he cheerfully ignored and conducted anyway.

Given the importance that Chinese culture places on "face", this was Kim mooning Beijing - and then spitting in their collective eyes to boot. Not a real smart thing to do to the Chinese leadership.

But Kim knows that China can't do squat - any economic disruption in North Korea would be a massive headache for the Chinese, both in terms of refugees and in terms of losing a buffer zone that they've employed successfully for years.

So, if you're the Chinese leadership, what do you do? Accept the loss of face and move on? Impose sanctions? Work to overthrow the regime from within?

Curiously enough, there's an ancient Chinese curse that seems to be applicable here: may you live in interesting times!

AP - China's patience with its longtime ally North Korea appeared to be wearing thin on Tuesday as Beijing warned Pyongyang that its staging of a nuclear test would harm the two countries' relations.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

06:42 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link