Mutant antibiotic-resistant superbugs are being spread in Texas winds

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It sounds like a nightmarish plot of a Michael Crichton science-fiction thriller: Mutant, antibiotic-resistant microbes that go airborne and spread in the wind, infecting people far and wide who have the misfortune to breathe in the "superbugs."

The problem, according to a new study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, is that the scary scenario may not be fiction. Texas Tech University researchers Phil Smith and Greg Mayer have discovered that DNA from antibiotic resistant bacteria spawned in cattle feedlots — where the drugs are added to healthy animals' food to promote growth — in the winds that blow dust out of the lots. Read more...

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