The Ted talk “The urgent case for antibiotic-free animals” said that farmers should only use very low levels of antibiotics, or not use antibiotics at all, but what can we use instead of antibiotics? One solution, is to use a more balanced meal, like said in the video, and to have cleaner water and living quarters, and to have better hygiene, as the video described. However, there is a problem with that. Farmers are raising the animals for money, and the better meals, living conditions, and hygiene for animals will cost more money, and it is a huge hassle to prepare and do. So as long as antibiotics work, I think farmers will use them, because their goal is to make money.
So I watched this youtube video before, it was by “Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell”, and it was about bacteriophages. They area form of life, that is bacteria’s natural predator. It is everywhere, like germs, and bacteria, and like germs and bacteria, there are many times of bacteriophages. Each type of bacteriophage targets one specific type of bacteria, and its close relatives. The Video said, that now that there are bacteria practically immune to drugs, (superbugs) we can use bacteriophages to kill bacteria. There has already been cases that have been cured with bacteriophages, and according to wikipedia,
“Phage therapy is the use of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections. This could be used as an alternative to antibiotics when bacteria develop resistance. Superbugs that are immune to multiple types of drugs are becoming a concern with the more frequent use of antibiotics.”
This makes it seem that bacteriophages are the perfect solution to bacteria, especially now that bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics. And they do not harm any human or animal cells, only bacteria. They do this by clamping on to the bacteria, making the bacteria cell make bacteriophage parts, and then assemble the bacteriophage parts, and then it explodes the bacteria, releasing the bacteriophages. Bacteria might adapt to bacteriophages, as life adapts to changes, but bacteriophages will adapt too, since they are also life. And the video also said, that it is proven, that if a bacteria’s resistance to antibiotics rises, it’s resistance for bacteriophages lowers, and the opposite is true, so there is just about nothing to worry about. So a simple and effective alternative (other than solution to superbugs/antibiotic resistant bacteria, are bacteriophages.