Does feeding cattle antibiotics contribute to global warming?

[WhiteTara]

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/0526/Does-feeding-cattle-antibiotics-contribute-to-global-warming

Feeding antibiotics to farm animals may be another factor in global warming, according to a new study published this week that found higher amounts of methane, a gas well known to contribute to global warming, in the manure of cattle fed the now-common drugs.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of antibiotics increasing methane emissions," the international team of researchers wrote in a study published Wednesday in the Proceedings for the Royal Society B. The antibiotics kill bacteria that compete with methane-producing microbes, they reported, and so the drugs wind up allowing those microbes flourish.

"We know that there are negative consequences of antibiotics, particularly this effect of antibiotic resistance," co-author Tobin Hammer, a doctoral student at the University of Colorado Boulder, told NBC. "But this was a pretty unexpected link between antibiotics and this other important environmental issue that we care about – greenhouse gases."

Originally, the team hoped to learn about the drugs' impact on dung beetles, who burrow in cows' manure – a habit that might help combat the methane in the manure, according to previous studies.

[tonyt53]

1. Did the study say why the antibiotics were causing the cows to produce more methane?

It is because the cows eat more. It really is that simple. I prefer grain-fed meat from the farmer I buy a cow from every year. He doesn't use antibiotics.

[Jesus Malverde]

2. Creepy that antibiotics from cows get into humans.

And the FDA is cool with that.

[drm604]

3. The FDA is not cool with that.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-clears-way-for-new-curbs-on-antibiotics-given-to-farm-animals-1433253700