Case Solvency

Offshore aquaculture expansion in the US will use antibiotics – that creates resistance that spreads to humans

To date, promoters of domestic open-ocean aquaculture have downplayed the significant risks that could accompany the growth of such an industry in the US. A large body of peer- reviewed scientific literature has identified a host of risks and impacts, including: • Escapes: Aquaculture is known to be a major source for the introduction of exotic species, causing concern over the ecological impacts that escaped farmed species can have on wild f ish.3 Escaped fish compete with wild fish for food and habitat, transmit diseases, and prey on and breed with local fish, reducing the health of wild populations. • Diseases and Parasites: Intensive fish culture has been involved in the introduction and/or amplification of pathogens and disease in wild fish populations.’ • Nutrient and Habitat Impacts: By design, untreated wastes from open net pen systems are released directly into nearby bodies of water, which can negatively impact the surrounding environment6 Waste and uneaten food can build up on the ocean floor beneath pens, altering species abundance and community biodiversity. • Impacts on Predator Populations: The presence of captive fish held in high density attracts predators such as birds, sharks, and marine mammals. Techniques to keep some of these predators at bay can impact their natural behavior and pose entanglement and drowning risks. • Drugs and Chemicals: Aquaculture often relies on the use of chemicals including antibiotics, pesticides, and antifoulants.7 In some cases, use of antibiotics has resulted in bacterial resistance in the environment8 and has influenced antibiotic resistance in humans.9 • Increased Fishing Pressure on Wild Fish Stocks: Though counterintuitive, farming of fish can actually increase pressure to catch wild fish. Feed for many farmed species contains high percentages of fish meal and fish oil that come from wild-caught fish.1° To feed their livestock, the fish farming industry is creating pressure to remove key food sources on which economically and environmentally important wild species depend.’1 • Socioeconomic Impacts: Farmed fish compete with wild fish in the marketplace.t2 While price competition may be good for consumers, it can result in negative impacts on communities dependent on wild fish, including industry consolidation, overproduction arid elevated fishing pressure on wild fish stocks as fishermen try to catch more to make up for lower prices at market.

The spread of antibiotic resistant diseases causes extinction

Keating, Foreign Policy web editor, 9

(Joshua, “The End of the World”, 11-13-09, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/11/13/the_end_of_the_world?page=full, ldg)

How it could happen: Throughout history, plagues have brought civilizations to their knees. The Black Death killed more off more than half of Europe's population in the Middle Ages. In 1918, a flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people, nearly 3 percent of the world's population, a far greater impact than the just-concluded World War I. Because of globalization, diseases today spread even faster - witness the rapid worldwide spread of H1N1 currently unfolding. A global outbreak of a disease such as ebola virus -- which has had a 90 percent fatality rate during its flare-ups in rural Africa -- or a mutated drug-resistant form of the flu virus on a global scale could have a devastating, even civilization-ending impact. How likely is it? Treatment of deadly diseases has improved since 1918, but so have the diseases. Modern industrial farming techniques have been blamed for the outbreak of diseases, such as swine flu, and as the world’s population grows and humans move into previously unoccupied areas, the risk of exposure to previously unknown pathogens increases.  More than 40 new viruses have emerged since the 1970s, including ebola and HIV. Biological weapons experimentation has added a new and just as troubling complication.

Link – AQC => Resistance

Aquaculture causes antibiotic resistance and subsequent disease outbreaks

Greenpeace 8(Michelle obtained her PhD in biomedicine from the University of Exeter and Postgraduate Medical School of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital Paul obtained his PhD from the University of London in 1984 for research into the aquatic toxicity of selenium. Paul now has 20 years experience in providing scientific advice to Greenpeace offices around the world, David is a senior scientist with the Greenpeace Research Laboratories, with more than 10 years experience in providing analytical support and scientific advice to Greenpeace offices worldwide. David is a marine and freshwater biologist who obtained his PhD from the University of London- “Challenging the Aquaculture Industry on Sustainability Technical overview” Greenpeace Research Laboratories [Page 12-13] M.V)


2.1.3 Chemicals used to Control Diseases: Intensive aquaculture greatly increases the risk of disease outbreaks among stock by concentrating many individuals in a small volume (high stocking density), maintaining continuous production cycles for many years and allowing wastes to accumulate in ponds or beneath cages (Pearson and Inglis 1993, Buchmann et al. 1995). As consequence, a wide variety of chemicals and drugs may be added to aquaculture cages and ponds in order to control viral, bacterial, fungal or other pathogens (Gräslund and Bengtsson 2001; Wu 1995). Pesticides and Disinfectants: Gräslund and Bengtsson (2001) noted that there is generally a lack of information about the quantities of chemicals used in shrimp farming in southeast Asian countries. However, based on knowledge of the types of chemical used there is a cause for concern. For instance, chemicals identified as being used at that time in Thai shrimp farms included copper compounds and triphenyltin, an organotin compound. These compounds are likely to leave persistent, toxic residues in sediments, which can, in turn, cause negative impacts on the environment. In addition, copper is moderately to highly acutely toxic to aquatic life. The use of triphenyltin compounds had already been banned in some other Asian countries. A more recent survey of shrimp farms in Sinaloa, Mexico, reported that pesticides were not used (Lyle- Fritch et al. 2006). Antibiotics Challenging the Aquaculture Industry on Sustainability: Technical Overview 12: A range of antibiotics are in use worldwide in aquaculture to prevent or treat diseases caused by bacteria. With regard to the usage of antibiotics in aquaculture, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed a Code of Conduct for Responsible fisheries (FAO 1995). The Code indicates that preventative use of antibiotics in aquaculture should be avoided as far as possible and any use of antibiotics should preferably be under veterinary supervision (Holmström et al. 2003). Preventative (or prophylactic) use of antibiotics entails their use on a regular basis to prevent disease rather than to treat disease when it occurs. Holmström et al. (2003) noted that, whereas for shrimp farming in general, there is little published documentation on usage patterns of antibiotics, there was evidence that prophylactic use of antibiotics was a regular occurrence on many shrimp farms in Thailand. Such regular preventative application increases the risk of bacteria becoming resistant to the antibiotics in use, leading to serious problems if resistance is developed by a bacterial strain that can cause disease in the aquaculture stock.  Furthermore, there is a risk that bacteria which are pathogenic (cause disease) in humans could become resistant to an antibiotic, which is used to treat the disease in humans. This could be a serious risk to public health (Miranda and Zemelman 2002).

Antibiotics used in aquaculture mean pathogens develop a resistance

The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform ’11 (David Suzuki Foundation, Georgia Strait Alliance, Living Oceans Society, T. Buck Suzuki Foundation, “Excessive Antibiotics”, http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/salmon-farming-problems/health-concerns-chemical-use/excessive-antibiotics/) LL

Large volumes of antibiotics are used in salmon farming to treat disease. Open net-cage aquaculture systems encourage antibiotic use because farmed fish are fully exposed to diseases and parasites that occur in the ocean environment.¶ With the combination of exposure to disease and the ability of disease pathogens to multiply quickly in the high density conditions common to net-cages, excessive and preventative antibiotic use is common practice in the salmon farming industry.¶ Farmed salmon are treated with antibiotics through medicated baths and medicated food. By law, a “withdrawal period” – a set number of days between the last use of the antibiotic and the harvest of fish for human consumption – must be met in order to limit the residues of antibiotics in the final product to safe levels.¶ The major cause of concern with the use of antibiotics in farmed salmon (and other livestock) is that many of these antibiotics are also used to treat human diseases. Frequent use of antibiotics in aquaculture and other industries poses a risk to human health by allowing disease microbes to become resistant to antibiotic treatments – making it more difficult to treat human disease. The multistakeholder World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue commissioned a report on chemical use in salmon farming.¹ The committee of expert scientists that authored the report explain that:¶ “…this use of large volumes of antibiotics can only be explained by excessive and prophylactic [preventative] use. Excessive and prophylactic use of antibiotics in animal husbandry is in general the result of shortcomings in rearing methods and hygienic conditions that favor animal stress, and opportunistic infections and their dissemination.”¶ The committee of scientists, including a research scientist from Fisheries and Oceans Canada marine environmental sciences division, raised concerns about the large quantities of antibiotics that are applied in Chile and in BC. The quantity of antibiotics prescribed per metric ton of production is significantly higher in comparison to Norway or Scotland.¶ In open net-cage fish farming it is likely for antibiotics to pass into the environment, affecting wildlife remaining in the environment for extended periods of time. The report concludes that “antibiotic-resistant organisms in the marine environment will, in turn, pass their antibiotic resistance genes to other bacteria, including human and animal pathogens.” The whole ecosystem (including fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and human beings) is affected.¶ The industry continues to rely on these treatments, administered in net-cages open to the ocean, despite growing concerns over antibiotic resistance.2

Chemicals used in aquaculture cause diseases and antibiotic resistance in the entire ecosystem

Deike 3/19 (John, 3/19/14, “Is Farmed Salmon Safe to Eat?”, Staffwriter for EcoWatch, http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/19/is-farmed-salmon-safe-to-eat/) LL

Five years ago, global fish farming production lapped wild catches as the primary source of all seafood consumed, and two years ago, global aquaculture production outpaced global beef production. ¶ Environmentalists had sounded past warnings to avoid farmed salmon, mainly because the carnivorous fish are fed animal-derived proteins called “fish meal,” or fish oil made from anchovies, which have been shown to carry Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxins that can make their way into the human food supply.¶ “It’s fair to say that salmon farming is better than it used to be, but it used to be horrendous,” wrote Oceana contributor Justine Hausheer. ”Even the best farms still pollute their waters with parasiticides, chemicals and fish feces. The Chilean farmed salmon industry uses over 300,000 kilograms of antibiotics a year, causing bacterial resistances that affect fish, the environment and human beings.” ¶ Additionally, farmed salmon can leap out of the oceanside pens they are raised in, which can potentially spread disease or unwanted genes to wild populations already under stress from overfishing, pollution and shrinking habitats.

Accelerated growth of aquaculture causes the overuse of antibiotics – that creates resistant pathogens that spread to humans

Cabello 06, Felipe C. Cabello, M.D. and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, 7/1/06, “Heavy use of prophylactic antibiotics in aquaculture: a growing problem for human and animal health and for the environment,” Environmental microbiology, 8(7), 1137 - 1144-1144, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2006.01054.x/full, NR

The accelerated growth of finfish aquaculture has resulted in a series of developments detrimental to the environment and human health. The latter is illustrated by the widespread and unrestricted use of prophylactic antibiotics in this industry, especially in developing countries, to forestall bacterial infections resulting from sanitary shortcomings in fish rearing. The use of a wide variety of antibiotics in large amounts, including non-biodegradable antibiotics useful in human medicine, ensures that they remain in the aquatic environment, exerting their selective pressure for long periods of time. This process has resulted in the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in aquaculture environments, in the increase of antibiotic resistance in fish pathogens, in the transfer of these resistance determinants to bacteria of land animals and to human pathogens, and in alterations of the bacterial flora both in sediments and in the water column. The use of large amounts of antibiotics that have to be mixed with fish food also creates problems for industrial health and increases the opportunities for the presence of residual antibiotics in fish meat and fish products. Thus, it appears that global efforts are needed to promote more judicious use of prophylactic antibiotics in aquaculture as accumulating evidence indicates that unrestricted use is detrimental to fish, terrestrial animals, and human health and the environment.

Link – A2: Plan ends use of Antibiotics

Aquaculture unlikely to discontinue use of antimicrobial agents – proven through last 50 years

FAO, OIE, WHO ‘6 (“Antimicrobial Use in Aquaculture and Antimicrobial Resistance” Pg. 33-34 –June 13-16, 2006 -http://www.who.int/topics/foodborne_diseases/aquaculture_rep_13_16june2006%20.pdf?ua=1)

Antimicrobial use in cultured aquatic species has paralleled the growth of aquaculture over the last 50 years. As the proportion of intensive culture systems and the number of new species under culture has grown, so have the diversity of antimicrobial agents and the extent of their use. Factors influencing the risk of disease in intensive culture systems are well described and include high stocking densities and reduced water quality. However, sometimes overlooked is the fact that the number of new species introduced into culture also contributes to an increase risk of disease as a result of the learning curve experienced by culturists in developing efficient production systems. As the production systems become more refined the need for and the use of antimicrobials can be reduced by improvements in husbandry and alternate management tools such as the use of vaccines. Constraining the use of antimicrobials in aquaculture is a variety of factors that include high cost, prohibited or uncertain regulatory status, infeasible routes of administration, poor absorption, toxicity, and environmental considerations. Nevertheless, the drive to minimize production losses and the relative availability of antimicrobial agents in certain regions has contributed to the use of antimicrobials in aquaculture. Not unlike human and terrestrial counterparts, bacterial resistance to antimicrobials has become widespread in aquaculture. Antimicrobials are applied to aquatic species in their culture system. The ability to remove aquatic species from their culture system and treat them on an individual basis is often limited to high value individuals, such as broodfish or ornamental fish. Systems for applying injections to multiple animals are limited to infrequent applications such as vaccines and are not routinely employed for antimicrobials on a production basis. Although antimicrobial therapy should be guided by principles of disease diagnosis and rational chemotherapeutic selection and administration, empirical therapy and prophylactic use have caused concern for the development of antimicrobial resistance. Of particular concern is the potential for the development of resistant bacteria that could be transferred to humans through food handling and consumption.

Link – A2: Doesn’t get to Humans

Fish Bacteria Can Affect Humans – Epidemiological and Molecular evidence

Cabello 06, Felipe C. Cabello, M.D. and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, 7/1/06, “Heavy use of prophylactic antibiotics in aquaculture: a growing problem for human and animal health and for the environment,” Environmental microbiology, 8(7), 1137 - 1144-1144, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2006.01054.x/full, NR

Not unexpectedly, exchange of genes for resistance to antibiotics between bacteria in the aquaculture environment and bacteria in the terrestrial environment, including bacteria of animals and human pathogens has recently been shown (Sørum, 1998; Rhodes et al., 2000a,b; Schmidt et al., 2001a,b; Sørum, 2006). For example, strong epidemiological and molecular evidence exists indicating that fish pathogens such as Aeromonas can transmit and share determinants for resistance to antibiotics with pathogens such as Escherichia coli isolated from humans (Rhodes et al., 2000a,b; Sørum, 2000; L’Abee-Lund and Sørum, 2001; Sørum and L’Abée-Lund, 2002; Sørum, 2006). Incompatibility IncU plasmids containing determinants for resistance to tetracycline encoded by Tn1721, have been disseminated between Aeromonas salmonicida, a fish pathogen, and the human pathogens Aeromonas hydrophila, Aeromonas caviae and E. coli obtained from different geographical locations in Europe (Rhodes et al., 2000a). Similar molecular epidemiology studies in A. salmonicida have shown that plasmids that contain class 1 integrons found in human pathogenic bacteria, and are able to transfer with high frequency to E. coli and Salmonella, are responsible for the resistance to trimethoprim, sulfonamide and streptomycin in this bacterium (Sørum and L’Abée-Lund, 2002; Sørum, 2006). The sulfonamide-resistant determinant SulI has also been found in plasmids present in A. salmonicida and bacteria of other niches including Erwinia (a plant pathogen), Vibrio cholerae and E. coli, thereby suggesting the transfer of genetic information between all these bacteria of the terrestrial and aquatic environment (L’Abee-Lund and Sørum, 2001; Sørum, 2006).

Antibiotics in aquaculture empirically cause resistance in humans

Benbrook 2 (Dr. Charles M. Benbrook, Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center, February 2002, “Antibiotic Drug Use in US Aquaculture”, http://iatp.org/files/421_2_37397.pdf) LL

European researchers have made significant progress in understanding the mechanisms¶ through which antibiotic resistant bacteria that emerge on fish farms can move to humans.¶ First, a team of British and Irish scientists documented the distinct movement of resistant¶ bacterial pieces of DNA from fish hatcheries into E. coli and Aeromonas species isolated from patients in hospitals (Rhodes et al. 2000). They concluded that: “Collectively, these findings provide evidence to support the hypothesis that the aquaculture and human compartments of the environment behave as a single interactive compartment.” (Rhodes et al. 2000) Second, Danish researchers found that many bacteria in and around four trout farms¶ were resistant to “most antibiotic agents presently available for use in Danish aquaculture”¶ (Schmidt et al. 2000). While there are some barriers (e.g., water temperature¶ ) to the spread of¶ many common bacteria from fish to humans, there are pathways unique to aquaculture. For¶ example, ornamental fish imported from abroad are often aggressively treated with antibiotics¶ prior to export to the United States. Since ornamental fish are brought into the home and¶ people come into contact with the fish and the water and tanks they are kept in, they can serve¶ as another source of multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria.¶ Third, in Ecuador, which exports a large quantity of pond- raised shrimp to the United¶ States a cholera outbreak was suspected to be linked to inappropriate use of antibiotics in¶ industrial shrimp farming practices (Weber et al. 1994). What becomes clear in each of these¶ cases is that a number of highly complex environmental scenarios emerge that can lead to¶ bacterial resistance transfers from aquaculture practices to humans.

Link – A2: No Antibiotics in Open Ocean AQC

Expansion of offshore aquaculture will create demand for antibiotic use permits

Food & Water Watch – October 2007, Open Ocean Aquaculture: Chemicals of Concern to Human Health and the Environment, http://nsapes.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/ChemicalsOfConcern.pdf

While inland aquaculture facilities, such as hatchery tanks, are required by their permits to manage the release of chemicals and fish wastes into the environment, the permits for offshore aquaculture facilities do not have to mandate the treatment of discharged effluents. As of October 2007, no antibiotics have been approved to treat the adult fish typically raised in offshore cages. However, if offshore aquaculture operations are built at the scale predicted by the federal government, such in tensive production would undoubtedly create the demand for drug companies to petition FDA to approve antibiotics for fish in offshore aquaculture.

Impact XT

Antimicrobial Resistance Will Lead to Extinction

Desikan 11

Prasanna Desikan, Department of Microbiology, Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre, 8/17/11, “Antimicrobial resistance and extinction,” Indian J Med Microbiol 2011;29:207-8, NR

Quite obviously, antimicrobial resistance is a phenomenon that has reached pandemic proportions because it has been fuelled by human need, greed and irresponsibility. The result is a face off between Homo sapiens and an entire array of micro-organisms, be they bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. Though diminutive, micro-organisms are formidable foes. They have been around on this planet for much longer than we have, and have survived odds that we cannot even begin to comprehend. Considering the fact that microbial cells outnumber human cells in our bodies in a ratio of 10:1, we are more microbes than human beings. And, if this is war, then it is an exercise in self destruction.

Antibiotic Resistance is the Next Global Catastrophe

Moisse 12, Katie Moisee, 3/16/12, “Antibiotic Resistance Could Bring ‘End of Modern Medicine’,” ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/16/antibiotic-resistance-could-bring-end-of-modern-medicine/, NR

As bacteria evolve to evade antibiotics, common infections could become deadly, according to Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization. Speaking at a conference in Copenhagen, Chan said antibiotic resistance could bring about “the end of modern medicine as we know it.” “We are losing our first-line antimicrobials,” she said Wednesday in her keynote address at the conference on combating antimicrobial resistance. “Replacement treatments are more costly, more toxic, need much longer durations of treatment, and may require treatment in intensive care units.”Chan said hospitals have become “hotbeds for highly-resistant pathogens” like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, “increasing the risk that hospitalization kills instead of cures.” Indeed, diseases that were once curable, such as tuberculosis, are becoming harder and more expensive to treat.Chan said treatment of multidrug resistant tuberculosis was “extremely complicated, typically requiring two years of medication with toxic and expensive medicines, some of which are in constant short supply. Even with the best of care, only slightly more than 50 percent of these patients will be cured.”Antibiotic-resistant strains of salmonella, E. coli, and gonorrhea have also been discovered. “Some experts say we are moving back to the pre-antibiotic era. No. This will be a post-antibiotic era. In terms of new replacement antibiotics, the pipeline is virtually dry,” said Chan. “A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill.”The dearth of effective antibiotics could also make surgical procedures and certain cancer treatments risky or even impossible, Chan said. “Some sophisticated interventions, like hip replacements, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy and care of preterm infants, would become far more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake,” she said. The development of new antibiotics now could help stave off catastrophe later. But few drug makers are willing to invest in drugs designed for short term use. “It’s simply not profitable for them,” said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. “If you create a new drug to reduce cholesterol, people will be taking that drug every day for the rest of their lives. But you only take antibiotics for a week or maybe 10 days.” Schaffner likened the dilemma to Ford releasing a car that could only be driven if every other vehicle wasn’t working. “While we try to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to create new antibiotics, we have to be very prudent in their use,” he said. But there are ways to limit the potential for bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance: Use antibiotics appropriately and only when needed; follow treatment correctly; and restrict the use of antibiotics in food production to therapeutic purposes. “At a time of multiple calamities in the world, we cannot allow the loss of essential antimicrobials, essential cures for many millions of people, to become the next global crisis,” said Chan.

Impact – A2: Disease Defense

Disease causes a mass number of deaths, extinction is possible

Viegas, 08, Journalist at National Academy of Sciences and Discovery Communications, “How disease can wipe out an entire species”, (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27556747/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/how-disease-can-wipe-out-entire-species/#.U68Kuhb6IpE)

Disease can wipe out an entire species, reveals a new study on rats native to Australia's Christmas Island that fell prey to "hyperdisease conditions" caused by a pathogen that led to the rodents' extinction.¶ The study, published in the latest issue of the journal PLoS One, presents the first evidence for extinction of an animal entirely because of disease.¶ The researchers say it's possible for any animal species, including humans, to die out in a similar fashion, although a complete eradication of Homo sapiens would be unlikely.¶ "I can certainly imagine local population or even citywide 'extinction,' or population crashes due to introduced pathogens under a condition where you have a pathogen that can spread like the flu and has the pathogenicity of the 1918 flu or Ebola viruses," co-author Alex Greenwood, assistant professor of biological sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., told Discovery News.¶ The 1918 flu killed millions of people, while Ebola outbreaks have helped to push gorillas close to extinction.¶ For the Christmas Island study, Greenwood and his colleagues collected DNA samples from the island's now-extinct native rats, Rattus macleari and R. nativitatis, from museum-housed remains dating to both before and after the extinction event, which occurred between 1899 and 1908.¶ Co-author Ross MacPhee, a curator of vertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, N.Y., explained that Charles Andrews of the British Museum documented at the time that black rats were first brought to the island via the S.S. Hindustan in 1899. The ship-jumping black rats then carried a protozoan known as Trypanosoma lewisi. A related organism causes sleeping sickness in humans. Fleas are the intermediate host for one of the developmental stages of Trypanosoma, and the only likely method (of disease spread) is infected fleas crossing from black rats to endemic rats," MacPhee told Discovery News.¶ After the Hindustan's arrival, the native island rats were observed staggering around deathly ill on footpaths. Shortly thereafter, they were never seen again.¶ The museum DNA samples showed that Christmas Island native rodents collected before the black rats invaded the island were not infected with the protozoan, but six out of 18 collected post-contact were infected.¶ Eight great extinct species"Not every rat would have to be infected," Greenwood explained. "If you push a population down to an unsustainable number then it will collapse. In addition, if a substantial number of reproducing individuals became infected and ill, even if they survived the infection, their reproduction rate may be lowered and lead to a population crash."¶ Given the rats' fate, scientists are concerned about Tasmanian devils, which have been dying in record numbers due to devil facial tumor disease, a contagious cancer for which the carnivorous marsupials appear to have no immunity.¶ Such island species seem to be more vulnerable to extinction by disease. In a prior study, MacPhee determined that at least 80 percent of all species-level losses during the past 500 years have occurred on islands.¶ "The general explanation for islander susceptibility would presumably be that island denizens live in a sort of bubble, protected by water barriers from diseases prevalent on mainlands or elsewhere," MacPhee explained. "But when the bubble is broken -- think measles epidemics in Iceland in the 19th century -- the mortality can be extreme."¶ Karen Lips, associate professor of zoology at Southern Illinois University, told Discovery News that the new research was "well done and convincing, despite the limited number of samples available."¶ She also pointed out that island-like conditions exist within mainland areas.¶ "I work up on mountaintops, another kind of island with high endemism, which is greatly affected by emerging infectious disease," she said.¶ Elk in North America, for example, have suffered worrisome population losses due to wasting diseases induced by prions. Various South Pacific fruit bats and amphibians are also under threat now due to infectious diseases.¶ "What can be done?" asked MacPhee.¶ "Probably nothing other than captive conservation," he added. "Most wildlife biologists are hoping that such diseases, although severe, will eventually accommodate and the species will pull through."

Impact – Turns Case – Economy

Antimicrobial resistance collapses the economy and trade – turns case

World Health Organization 2014 (April, 2014, WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends. http://www.who.int/about/en/ “Antimicrobial resistance”) LL

New resistance mechanisms emerge and spread globally threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases, resulting in death and disability of individuals who until recently could continue a normal course of life.¶ Without effective anti-infective treatment, many standard medical treatments will fail or turn into very high risk procedures.¶ AMR kills¶ Infections caused by resistant microorganisms often fail to respond to the standard treatment, resulting in prolonged illness, higher health care expenditures, and a greater risk of death.¶ As an example, the death rate for patients with serious infections caused by common bacteria treated in hospitals can be about twice that of patients with infections caused by the same non-resistant bacteria. For example, people with MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, another common source of severe infections in the community and in hospitals) are estimated to be 64% more likely to die than people with a non-resistant form of the infection.¶ AMR hampers the control of infectious diseases¶ AMR reduces the effectiveness of treatment; thus patients remain infectious for a longer time, increasing the risk of spreading resistant microorganisms to others. For example, the emergence of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to artemisinin in the Greater Mekong subregion is an urgent public health concern that is threatening global efforts to reduce the burden of malaria.¶ Although MDR-TB is a growing concern, it is still largely under-reported, compromising control efforts.¶ AMR increases the costs of health care¶ When infections become resistant to first-line drugs, more expensive therapies must be used. A longer duration of illness and treatment, often in hospitals, increases health care costs as well as the economic burden on families and societies.¶ AMR jeopardizes health care gains to society¶ The achievements of modern medicine are put at risk by AMR. Without effective antimicrobials for prevention and treatment of infections, the success of organ transplantation, cancer chemotherapy and major surgery would be compromised.¶ AMR has the potential to threaten health security, and damage trade and economies¶ The growth of global trade and travel allows resistant microorganisms to be spread rapidly to distant countries and continents through humans and food. Estimates show that AMR may give rise to losses in Gross Domestic Product of more than 1% and that the indirect costs affecting society may be more than 3 times the direct health care expenditures. It affects developing economies proportionally more than developed ones.

Impact Calc – O/W Warming

Antibiotic Resistance Outweighs Global Warming

Prynne 6/25, Miranda Prynne, 6/25/14, “Longitude Prize to focus on the battle against antibiotic resistance,” The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10926683/Longitude-Prize-to-focus-on-the-battle-against-antibiotic-resistance.html, NR

The development of antibiotics has added an average of 20 years to our life expectancy, yet the rise of antimicrobial resistance is threatening to make them ineffective. This would render many common infections untreatable. Many scientists insisted antibiotic resistance poses a greater threat than climate change with the Government's Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies calling it a "ticking time-bomb".

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