From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2008-12-26 20:34:50 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Are We Creating Super Bugs
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
In all honesty you are both right. Every thing has its own risk factors.
Although allergies do increase in human kids who are in houses that
are "too clean" infections are higher among those who face the most
risks and some infections can have life-time consequences.
So, as long as the situation is not extreme let bygones be bygones,
but DO know the risk factors for any choice, and know that they
affect RATES, not each individual.
A domestic animal situation will never be like a wild one in terms of
the weak individuals dying off more easily, sometimes before they
can breed. Then again, that is a "sometimes", and even wild animals
who wind up in captivity with knowledgeable individuals and good
veterinary care have longer lives than occur in the wild. Why would
that not work in captivity? Because there are not any of us who are
that heartless that we would allow such deaths, and because humans
tend to select breeding pairs for very different reasons than the animals
do. Pure and simple.
Yes, sometimes it is useful to have antibodies to a range of illnesses
and the way to earn those is through exposure, but sometimes the
illnesses themselves pose great risks.
There was an EXCELLENT NIH paper recently on plagues and
emerging diseases which applies to the questions posed when
you look at the broad mechanisms:
http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/about/directors/pdf/EmergingInfectionsLancetID.pdf
Now, there ARE known ways of breeding super-bugs. Here are 3:
1. Over-using antibiotics so that the generations of bacteria become
increasingly resistant. Don't insist on antibiotics if a knowledgeable
health provider says they are not needed.
2. Stopping antibiotics too early. This is huge bad move because then instead
of finishing off the bacteria you leave behind the ones strong enough
that the short run of antibiotics did not kill them.
3. Creating situations which increase the physical communication
between areas. For example, AIDS has actually been around for
quite some time when it is traced back, but for most of that time
it was restricted to a small portion of Africa where eating wild primates
had brought it into the human population. Then roads began to be
built and trucks used so people could move to cities to work and
exchange goods and labor, and guess what traveled with them?
That has been the way of the world for a very long time. The Black
Plague traveled west with the Khan's armies. Small pox came to the
New World with Europeans. Well, the same thing can happen with
non-human species. Travel and gatherings can at times spread
illness during those unlucky times when it is there to spread.
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