Right now, we can fight off a wide range of bacterial infections using antibiotics. But those antibiotics are becoming increasingly ineffective, and antibiotic use on factory farms is partially to blame. 

In this episode, Lance Price and Cindy Liu, two public health researchers, explain that we give animals a steady dose of antibiotics in their feed, hoping to stave off disease in cramped, unsanitary conditions. But as a result, the bacteria in these animals develop resistance to antibiotics. But they have some suggestions for how we could make our antibiotics last.

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Featuring:

Byrd Pinkerton (@byrdala), podcast producer, Vox

Martha Nelson (@swientist), epidemiologist, National Institutes of Health

Juergen Richt (@juergenricht), professor of veterinary medicine, Kansas State University

Host:

Sigal Samuel (@SigalSamuel), staff writer, Vox 

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