John Smith is a pig farmer. For the past five years, Smith has been adding vitamins and low doses of antibiotics to his pig food; he says that these supplements enhance the growth of the pigs. Within the past year, however, several of his pigs died from infections of common bacteria, which failed to respond to large doses of antibiotics. Can you explain the increased rate of mortality due to infection in Smith’s pigs? What advice might you offer Smith to prevent this problem in the future?

John Smith is a pig farmer. For the past five years, Smith has been adding vitamins and low doses of antibiotics to his pig food; he says that these supplements enhance the growth of the pigs. Within the past year, however, several of his pigs died from infections of common bacteria, which failed to respond to large doses of antibiotics. Can you explain the increased rate of mortality due to infection in Smith’s pigs? What advice might you offer Smith to prevent this problem in the future?

Human Heredity: Principles and Issues (MindTap Course List)

11th Edition

ISBN:9781305251052

Author:Michael Cummings

Publisher:Michael Cummings

Chapter9: Gene Expression And Gene Regulation

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 2CS: There have been recurring cases of mad-cow disease in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s....

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Many pathogenic bacteria are unable to make some of the metabolic compounds needed for growth and have instead evolved enzymes that enable the bacteria to actually invade human body cells. What do these bacteria expect to accomplish by this practice?
There have been recurring cases of mad-cow disease in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s. Mad-cow disease is caused by a prion, an infectious particle that consists only of protein. In 1986, the media began reporting that cows all over England were dying from a mysterious disease. Initially, there was little interest in determining whether humans could be affected. For 10 years, the British government maintained that this unusual disease could not be transmitted to humans. However, in March 1996, the government did an about-face and announced that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad-cow disease, can be transmitted to humans, where it is known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). As in cows, this disease eats away at the nervous system, destroying the brain and essentially turning it into a spongelike structure filled with holes. Victims experience dementia; confusion; loss of speech, sight, and hearing; convulsions; coma; and finally death. Prion diseases are always fatal, and there is no treatment. Precautionary measures taken in Britain to prevent this disease in humans may have begun too late. Many of the victims contracted it over a decade earlier, when the BSE epidemic began, and the incubation period is long (vCJD has an incubation period of 10 to 40 years). A recent study concluded that 1 in 2,000 people in Great Britain carry the abnormally folded protein that causes vCJD. In spite of these numbers, the death rate from vCJD remains low. It is not clear whether this means that the incubation period for the disease is much longer than previously thought, or whether they may never develop the disease. If you were traveling in Europe, would you eat beef? Give sound reasons why or why not.
There have been recurring cases of mad-cow disease in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s. Mad-cow disease is caused by a prion, an infectious particle that consists only of protein. In 1986, the media began reporting that cows all over England were dying from a mysterious disease. Initially, there was little interest in determining whether humans could be affected. For 10 years, the British government maintained that this unusual disease could not be transmitted to humans. However, in March 1996, the government did an about-face and announced that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad-cow disease, can be transmitted to humans, where it is known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). As in cows, this disease eats away at the nervous system, destroying the brain and essentially turning it into a spongelike structure filled with holes. Victims experience dementia; confusion; loss of speech, sight, and hearing; convulsions; coma; and finally death. Prion diseases are always fatal, and there is no treatment. Precautionary measures taken in Britain to prevent this disease in humans may have begun too late. Many of the victims contracted it over a decade earlier, when the BSE epidemic began, and the incubation period is long (vCJD has an incubation period of 10 to 40 years). A recent study concluded that 1 in 2,000 people in Great Britain carry the abnormally folded protein that causes vCJD. In spite of these numbers, the death rate from vCJD remains low. It is not clear whether this means that the incubation period for the disease is much longer than previously thought, or whether they may never develop the disease. What measures have been taken to stop BSE?
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Viruses are considered non-living microbes, and yet they are responsible for many major disease outbreaks in humans, animals, and even plants. Consider the following: How are these non-living microbes able to reproduce without metabolic functions? Can viruses be exploited to help humans fight bacterial pathogens? Which viruses are able to stay dormant in the human body and reactivate later in life or when immune defenses are compromised? What impact might travel outside of the United States have in blood, tissue, or organ donation? Please answer question 1, 2, 3, and 4 if possible, thank you.
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When a test tube of bacteria is treated with penicillin and left for two days, the bacteria were found to still be growing and the a changed form of penicillin is found inside of the bacterial cells. What mechanism of antibiotic resistance is likely to have occurred?
A recent study found that 480 Streptomyces strains freshly isolated from the soil are resistant to at least six different antibiotics. In fact, some isolates are resistant to 20 different antibiotic drugs.Why do you think these bacteria (which are neither pathogenic nor exposed to human use of antibiotics) are resistant to so many drugs? What might be the implications for human bacterial pathogens?
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Are the bacteria that cause Lyme disease likely to develop antibiotic resistance? Why or why not
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A4-month-old infant had been running a moderate fever for36 hours, and a nervous mother made a call to her pediatrician.Examination and tests revealed no outward signs of infectionor cause of the fever. The anxious mother wanted a prescription for antibiotics, but the pediatrician recommended watching the infant for two days before making a decision. He explained that decades of rampant use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture has caused a global surge in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, drastically reducing the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy for infections. He pointed out that bacteria can exchange antibiotic resistance traits and that many pathogenic strains are now resistant to several antibiotics. The mother wasnot placated by these explanations and insisted that her baby receive antibiotics immediately. This situation raises several issues. Question How should the pediatrician balance his ethical responsibility to provide effective treatment to the present patient with…