The Nation - News from Feb. 23, 1987

Scientists have established a link between the feeding of antibiotics to livestock and the spread of salmonella bacteria to humans, according to a report in the New York Times. Antibiotics, which are fed to animals to promote growth and protect them from disease, also allow strains of salmonella to flourish as other organisms are killed, the paper reported, citing a draft of a study by the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The salmonella can cause severe intestinal ailments in people who eat contaminated meat. The findings of the study are to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 5, the newspaper said.