This is a topic that comes up regularly in ferret health discussions so more can be found in archives. Antibiotic resistance is created in bacteria when antibiotics are given for the wrong reasons, or when antibiotics are stopped too soon, or when people use weakened old antibiotics instead of seeing a vet (or physician in people). They also are often created through the food supply because use on animals intended for foods is often done in ways that create resistant bacteria. It's long been known that certain illnesses, like HEV i.e. Hepatitis E which also causes illness in ferrets, have been passed along into waterways from pig manure. Here is a report on a finding of not only antibiotics but also antibiotic resistant bacteria in pig manure: <http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/02/11/171690001/pig-manure-reveals-more-reason-to-worry-about-antibiotics?ft=1&f=1053> This is a global problem. In recent years the U.S. has begun phasing in a range of types of controls over agricultural misuses. In Scandinavia the problem has been tackled for longer. A short quote about the manure of pigs given antibiotics at farms where the testing was done (PRC for this study): Tiedje then tested those manure samples, looking for genes that make bacteria resistant to particular antibiotics. That's when he hit the jackpot: He found more than 100 different resistance genes. The concentration of resistance genes was almost 200 times higher in these samples, compared to manure from a pig farm that had never used antibiotics. End quote Sukie (not a vet) Ferrets make the world a game. Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.miamiferret.org/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html "All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow." (2010, Steve Crandall) A nation is as free as the least within it. [Posted in FML 7700]