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Winds may carry antibiotics from feedlots

There’s a new study that says antibiotics used to treat livestock and antibiotic-resistant genes that pose a threat to humans can be carried by the wind from large livestock operations reports Politico.

Researchers at the Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University say they found six veterinary antibiotics in dust samples downwind from 10 large beef cattle feedlots in Texas. 

Researchers note as of last March over 75 percent of all cattle in U.S. feedyards with more than 1,000 head were located in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado.  This area also has the highest frequency of dust storms in the United States.