Subject: Re: Lep therapy

From: [email-masked] (Pierre A Plauzoles)
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 06:21:10 GMT

In a previous article, [email-masked] (Clinton Summers) says:

>Well, I have to agree.  Perpetual use of antibiotics in a preventitive
>fashion does tend to create more problems that it "fixes".

Quite true.

>More than willing to discuss the pros and cons of the issue!  What if we
>created a strain of entomopathogenic bacteria resistant to the natural
>antiobiotics through artificial selection in the lab?  Think some biotech
>companies and farmers would be unhappy about that!

Yes, and more than jyst those people: the monarchs and who knows how many 
other species would be in danger too, like many are now from overuse of 
Bt (though it may not be overused everywhere, the stuff is not doing 
birds like the jays and cuckoos, including the roadrunners, a favor by 
killing off their food, such as the larger sphinx moth caterpillars.  
Incidentally, the western yellow-billed cuckoo (which, unless I am 
grossly mistaken, inhabits the San Joaquin Valley and the area around 
Kern County's Lake Isabella among others) is a listed endangered species.

-- 
Pierre Plauzoles   [email-masked]
Canoga Park, California