Superbugs Super Suck

So by “tomorrow” I would have another post, I meant “the tomorrow after I trying to learn how to poach eggs and twerk in my kitchen”. Also no, I’m not joking; I’ve never poached an egg before.

ANYWAY. Superbugs.

You know I have one of these.

Like the lice that evolved as humans and human habits changed, so have superbugs have evolved. “Superbug” is a blanket term referring to any bacteria that has evolved antibiotic resistance. Strains that were once easily susceptible to mild antibiotics, now require stronger and stronger drugs to be eradicated. So not only are the chances or prolonged illness and death increased, but more people have to deal with harsher drugs to cure an infection. Not good.

How does this happen? By frequent exposure, or infrequent, low-level exposure to antibiotics. I can explain how this works with one of my convoluted analogies (cause I haven’t done one of those in a while).

Many of you have probably heard of the businesses that will blast classical music outside in order to discourage hoodlums. The idea being that angry punks have no appreciation for Bach and Brahms and, finding the music annoying, will leave. If only one business were pumping the Baroque jams, then the kids would leave and find somewhere else to hang. Should a lot of businesses try this (whether or not angry punks are actually a problem), the kids would quickly become accustomed to the music. Similarly, if only a few businesses tried it, but not at volumes loud enough to be a proper annoyance, the kids would easily develop a tolerance and never leave. As a result, the businesses that actually have a problem with angry punks and hoodlums will have to play less and less mainstream music (like opera or free-form jazz) louder in order to clear their sidewalks. But at a certain point, they’ll alienate their own customers on top of the kids that want to smoke and curse outside. Either way, the business now has a lot of Classical Resistant Angry Punks (CRAP) to deal with.

In this scenario, the kids are the bacteria and the music is the antibiotic. When people use antibiotics unnecessarily (like when folks demand some for a viral infection), not only does it kill off your natural microbiota, but the frequent exposure ensures that only bacteria tough enough to withstand the drugs will survive. Remember, even your natural bacteria can be dangerous in the right place or population size.

Another problem occurs when patients do not finish their course of antibiotics. Many people assume that just because they feel better, they can stop taking medicine. However, this can end up only killing off the weaker bacteria, leaving resistant strains to proliferate and evolve stronger resistance. Bacteria can also pass their resistance on to or receive resistance from others. That’s how we get multiple-resistant pains in the neck like Staph.

If you have a bacterial infection that will not clear up on its own (like many ear infections), ABSOLUTELY take the antibiotics your doctor prescribes. Just make sure you finish the dose and do NOT demand antibiotics if they’re not necessary. Many people (especially parents) want to feel like they’re doing something about an infection, but antibiotics are not always the answer.

Hugs not drugs, guys.

Although hugs will not cure TB.

I strongly recommend drugs if you have TB.

The RIGHT ONES though.

Minocin will not help.

Just talk to a doctor, OK?

Ophid out.

Source

–. 2014. “Stop The Spread of Superbugs.” NIH News In Health. March 6, 2015. < http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/feb2014/feature1&gt;

Eating Duck, Duck, GOOSE

I was on a roll posting things there and then suddenly poof! I swear I wasn’t just eating bon bons…well, I’m doing that now…but that is beside the point! Life happens, we move on.

Specifically, we move on to ducks.

DUCK

Some cutie wanted to know why it is safe and acceptable to eat duck medium-rare or rare, but not chicken. Why indeed! Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it. Apparently I do not eat enough ducks. Also, Googling this will get you a lot of cooking forums where folks suppose that ducks and geese are bacteria free.

Ducks and geese, like everything else, are exposed to bacteria in their daily lives and thus susceptible to bacterial contamination. The difference between them and chicken is actually in the muscle itself.

Although not as red as beef, duck and goose meat is considered “red”. As migratory birds, they possess fast-oxidative muscle fibers (which I described oh so long ago…). Like beef, these muscles are dense, so bacteria cannot penetrate deep into the tissue. As a result, as long as the outside of the duck or goose is cooked, the inside can safely remain pink. Of course, as the FDA always likes to remind us at the bottom of the menu, “any raw or undercooked meat or eggs carry a risk of food-bourne illness, &etc”. But The Risk is still greatly decreased.

Chicken on the other hand, is a considerably less dense white meat. Bacteria can penetrate deeper into their fast-glycolytic muscle tissue, so cooking chicken all the way through is necessary. If you don’t, that pink center will only get warm enough to incubate whatever could be living in there. And that would be gross.

Don’t be gross.

The End.

Sources

Armentrout, Jennifer. “Cooking Duck Breast: Is Medium-Rare Safe?” Fine Cooking. Feb 9, 2015. <http://www.finecooking.com/articles/cooking-duck-brest-medium-rare.aspx&gt;

Sherwood, Lauralee, Hillar Klandorf and Paul Yancey. 2005. Animal Physiology: From Genes to Organisms. Thomson Brookes/Cole, Belmont, CA.

–. 2015 “Meat and Poultry Temperature Guide.” Food Network. Feb 9. 2015 <http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/meat-and-poultry-temperature-guide.html&gt;

Raw Power- Clarification

Some things have been been bugging me since I posted Raw Power the other day, and I want to make a clarification. First of all, food poisoning is serious business. Bacteria like E Coli and Salmonella can make you very sick, some strains can even kill you. Things like improper butchering or storage techniques allow for bacterial contamination and proliferation, as a result, humans invented cooking to kill any potential bacteria living in their food. Eating raw meat means you trust yours or the restaurant’s butcher and the chef that prepared it. Although there are grades of bacterial exposure (called inoculum) that range from unnoticeable to the body to lethal, it does NOT take much time for bacteria to proliferate to a lethal inoculum size (which varies between species). It can take as little as 20 minutes for a population on your food to double. So ALWAYS keep food cold and separate from other things when not preparing it and wash everything well and frequently.

Sushi, conversely, is a greater concern for parasitic contamination. Preparing sushi means choosing fish that have been carefully inspected for any parasites. They’ve also been flash frozen at incredibly cold temperatures to kill any lingering buggies (your freezer is not cold enough to do this). If you’re making sushi (or steak tartarre, for that matter) tell your butcher so they can help you choose the best and safest cuts.

Lastly, I addressed bacterial contamination at large, but it remains to be said that E Coli, Salmonella and other enteric bacteria reside in the gut, so contamination with such bacteria is indicative of exposure to fecal matter (usually due to nicking the intestines during butchering). These do not just live in your environment if you are a safe cook. Be a safe cook.

Again, there are safe ways to eat raw meat, but you and the meat have to be safe. The FDA is strict about testing for the serious stuff like E Coli and Salmonella, so I focused on other types of bacterial exposure. However, I realized my post might have minimized the dangers and thus I wanted to clarify some things.

That is all.

Raw Power

Have I expressed my love of eating? I love eating. Food is beautiful and delicious and beautifully delicious. I will tunnel my way through a box of Cheezits or meander my way through some world class Thai cuisine. If it’s edible, I will try it at least once. Some of my favorite foods involve raw meat: sushi, venison carpaccio, steak tartarre. As a result, I am often pronounced “brave” (sometimes also “semi-feral”, if they’ve seen me eat) by some of my friends and family.

Raw and undercooked foods, particularly meat, do have a risk of causing food poisoning. If they’re contaminated with hostile bacteria, it can make you all kinds of BLEAH. Veggies have a decreased chance of carrying such bacteria, and they don’t make for as tasty of an environment for them, either.

So why would anyone eat raw or undercooked meat? As I’ve covered previously (see previous) our bodies have natural microbiota and other strong defenses against pathogens. Anything that makes you sick has to overwhelm the initial defense. A few bacterial cells won’t even make a dent; those bastards need a LOT of buddies before they pose a significant health threat. Smaller children, the elderly and the immune compromised can get sick a lot more easily because their immune systems are not as strong; it takes less bacteria to make them sick.

Think about all those times you’ve had everyone’s favorite raw treat: cookie dough. We’ve all had some, yeah? Cookie dough is DELICIOUS and anyone who says otherwise is lying. And you know, a little cookie dough that goes straight from the mixing bowl to my mouth, with little waiting around is not going to be a hospitable environment for bacteria to grow. At no point does the dough get warm enough for any bacteria present to multiply into significant numbers. Ideally, it has also never been exposed to harmful bacteria, cause we know that even beneficial bodily microbiota can be dangerous if they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Besides, unless you sterilize your kitchen constantly, there WILL be bacteria in your kitchen. And if you do, well…you got issues, man.

Delicious, delicious salmonella risk…

As with the raw cookie dough, raw meats are kept chilled until serving, at temperatures too cold for bacteria to proliferate. By the time they make it to my plate, exposure to foreign bacteria is minimal and it’s perfectly safe to eat.

Although ideally there is some exposure to Worcestshire, maybe some rock salt or a nice vodka marinade.

Hm, pardon me while I get some lunch. Next time I’ll address why duck is safe undercooked but chicken is not.

Cheers!

Sources

-. 2010. GRE Subject Test: Biology 5th Ed. Kaplan, New York.

Kidding Around

OK, so goats.

I love goats. Not just itty kiddies, but grown ones too. Not sure why, they’re not usually terribly cuddly. Although if you scritch that spot on their backs, right between the hind legs they just go weak in the knees and it’s adorable.

Anyway, in high school I volunteered at the local zoo’s (Woodland Park Zoo) “Family Farm” which featured goats and other farm animals that are part of the summer petting zoo. Besides tidying their stables, etc., we were responsible for keeping the goats and sheep social in the winter so that when summer came they did not flip any shits over small children trying to pet them. Or at least in one goat’s case, make sure he continued to ignore/avoid everything (he was not actually in contact area at all, but we continued to dream).

So we got used to the goaty quirks, like chewing on our hair and coats. You would also notice them stand still, not moving then suddenly belch softly and start chewing, mouth abruptly full. If you think they just regurgitated something to continue chewing on it…you are exactly right. Goats are herbivores, and considering the low nutritional value of plants, and the high difficulty in digesting large quantities of plant fibers, they possess a stomach with four compartments with which they tackle their dinners. The biggest contribution to digestion in goats comes from bacteria. Bacteria actually aid in fermentation of ingesta (ingested food/miscelani). Though periodically the goats need to regurgitate things that require more chewing.

That’s just a little introduction, but I will continue tomorrow.

Source

Sherwood, Lauralee, Hillar Klandorf and Paul Yancey. 2005. Animal Physiology: From Genes to Organisms. Thomson Brookes/Cole, Belmont, CA.

Photo credit, me.

On Drinking Texas Tea

Following the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and subsequent spill into the Gulf of Mexico there was a lot of talk about clean up efforts, including talk of oil-degrading bacteria. Seems mighty helpful of the bacteria, degrading all this crap we spilled, but the fact is that the bacteria are entirely selfish. I’ve thought that saying the bacteria are “degrading” the oil sounds more like they’re kindly disassembling molecules for us. The fact is that oils are hydrocarbons and there are many kinds of bacteria that need it as a carbon and energy source. These bacteria possess specialized enzymes for digesting the oil into carbon dioxide and water. However, oil is made up of a variety of chemicals so no one species of bacteria can digest all of it. Different species chow down on different hydrocarbons using different enzymes. But! Species without the gene for producing such enzymes can receive the gene for these enzymes either via human-mediated bioengineering, or the natural process of horizontal gene transfer. Bacteria can actually give good genes to other bacteria. It requires a sex pilus to connect two cells and through which the donor can send a copy of their genes for oil-degrading enzymes.

Unfortunately, oil digestion is not a quick process. The speed depends on environmental conditions such as temperature, pH and availability of other nutrients, as well as the actual size and composition of the oil spill in question. Regardless, the presence of bacteria make a big difference in controlling and shortening long term effects of hydrocarbon contamination in the environment. By the way, I’ve been talking a lot about oil spills, but microbes are widely used for a variety of chemical spills involving hydrocarbons.

 

Source

American Academy of Microbiology. 2011. “Microbes and Oil Spills-FAQ”. Fisheries and Oceans Canada. June 16, 2013. < http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/publications/microbes/index-eng.html&gt;

Photo credit LBNL (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Fermenters for Father’s Day

What started as a request from my father for a Father’s Day blog topic ended in my education being denounced as incomplete because I don’t read Superman. Also I think my dad wants to be silicon-based. Maybe. That part was slightly unclear. Anyway, I think that means his present will be a bit more difficult to accomplish this year. I guess that’s what I get for waiting until the last minute. But! The Dado did express a desire to learn about microbes that do not rely on oxygen to survive, and what The Dado wants, The Dado gets (whether we like it or not…like the soul patch).

The reason for the different oxygen requirements of different microbes lies in cellular respiration. Respiration is essential for gleaning ATP (adenosine triphosphate, a high energy molecule that acts as “energy currency” in cells) from organic (or inorganic, depending on the microbe) compounds. Microbes have a variety of respiratory pathways, but I won’t bore you with all those right now (I can always bore you with them later). All the different pathways require a terminal electron receptor. That is, a molecule or atom that accepts electrons from the molecule being oxidized during respiration. Microbes that utilize oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor are called aerobes and those that use other compounds are called anaerobes. These groups can then be further broken down based on oxygen tolerance.

Aerobes that absolutely NEED oxygen are called obligate aerobes and contrast from facultative aerobes that may grow anaerobically, depending on conditions. E. coli is one such bacteria. Microaerophiles, as the name suggests, love only a little air. Much more than 5-10% oxygen concentration (atmospheric oxygen concentration is 20%) and they can’t grow. Likely they have oxygen sensitive proteins, so despite the fact they need oxygen for respiration, too much of the stuff will kill them. More oxygen tolerant bacteria produce more enzymes (such as catalase and superoxide dismutase) that work together to break down toxic oxygen compounds into safer compounds.

Obligate anaerobes are the opposite of obligate aerobes; they are completely oxygen-intolerant. These stroct anaerobes ferment or respirate anaerobically using compounds such as sulfates and nitrates as their terminal electron acceptors. However, their sensitivity to oxygen is not necessarily due to a lack of the detoxifying enzymes mentioned previously and could be cause by other factors. Aerotolerant anaerobes, on the other hand, don’t give a crap about oxygen and will grow with or without its presence. Typically they use fermentation as their respiratory pathway with pyruvate as the terminal electron receptor.

Aerobes have gotten a bit of press lately for their applications in degrading hydrocarbons associated with chemical spills. But more on that later; got to go figure out how to surprise The Dado with a silicon-based biology. I have a feeling a blindfold won’t cut it.

Enjoy the view, Dad. You’re going to be a metalloid soon.

Source

Brown, Alfred E. 2009. Benson’s Microbiological Applications: Laboratory Manual in General Microbiology. McGraw Hill, New York.

Photo credit, me.

Gifts of the Spices and Seasonings Part 2

After yesterday’s post, I’m sure you’re all wondering HOW your curry is antimicrobial. If not, then I’m not doing my job right! Or you’re not eating enough curry. Anyway, the true heroes of microbial inhibition are sulfur dioxide and phenols. For those of you unaware, a sulfur dioxide molecule contains one atom of sulfur bonded to two oxygen atoms (hence the “dioxide” bit). In your bloodstream after a nice garlic-and-onion-filled meal, it relaxes the blood vessel walls and thereby reduces blood pressure while giving you the kind of breath that would scare buzzards. Great stuff, right? Bacteria would not agree. While some bacteria LOVE sulfur, those involved in food spoilage do not. Sulfur dioxide gets all up in bacterial protein business, completely messing up their shit by binding to components of oxidation. Enzymes are particularly affected and their reduced function is lethal for the bacteria.

Phenols on the other hand don’t roll that way. Carbon rings with an alcohol group and other various bells and whistles, “phenol” is a very broad chemical term. However, when you’re thinking of antimicrobial components of spices, you’re thinking of eugenol, thymol and carvacrol. Found in cinnamon, cloves, sage and oregano, these phenols are badass. Quite simply, they destroy cell membranes. Doesn’t matter where, doesn’t matter what, fungi, bacteria, in a box with a fox, whatever. They’ll take it down.

So next time your coworkers commence sniffling and sneezing, grab what cold remedy you will, but to really battle the bugs, just spice things up a little.

 

Oh, and since I don’t have any fun, pertinent pictures today, here’s a sea otter washing his face.

 

 

Source

-. 2009. Winemaking. Practical Winery and Vineyard Journal. March 26, 2013.

-. 2010. GRE Subject Test: Biology 5th Ed. Kaplan, New York.

Billing, J and PW Sherman. 1998. Antimicrobial functions of spices: why some like it hot. Quarterly Review of Biology 73(1):3-49.

Oyedomi, SO, AI Okoh, LV Mabinya, G Pirochenva and AJ Afolayan. 2009. The proposed mechanism of the bactericidal action of eugenol, terpineol and terpinene against Listeria monocytogenes, Streptococcus pyogenes, Proteus vulgaris and Escherichia coli. African Journal of Biotechnology 8 (7): 1280-1286.

Sherwood, Lauralee, Hillar Klandorf and Paul Yancey. 2005. Animal Physiology: From Genes to Organisms. Thomson Brookes/Cole, Belmont, CA.

Photo courtesy of me, otter courtesy of the Seattle Aquarium

Pathogen Time or, BOOM Headshot

I was going to write about cell organelles, but I DO WHAT I WANT, so it’s really Pathogen Time. Plus, this nicely mirrors Video Game You (see: https://dailyscienceblog.wordpress.com/tag/john-mayer/ ), “know thy enemy” and all that. The big bosses are bacteria, viruses, fungi and prions.

Fighting a bacterial infection is basically the same as fighting zombies. They eat everything you love  (brains/nutrients), they’re dumb and gross and there are a shit ton of them. Thankfully, a headshot (with bullets, machete or antibodies) usually does the trick. Also, for common infections, you just need time to cut through the teeming horde. Less common ones require multiplayer mode/drugs. Although out-competing you for resources is the bacteria’s main mode of attack, they may also release toxins or invade your cells. Bacteria can also form “plaques”, consisting of bacteria and nutrients they are growing on/around. These can do a LOT of damage if left unchecked; the plaque on your teeth needs to be brushed off/scraped off with that God awful metal hook by the dentist or the bacteria will destroy your teeth. Do not let them destroy your teeth. A win for bacteria is a win for zombies.

Viruses on the other hand, while not technically living, are much more sophisticated than the single-cellular zombies on your teeth. The reason why they’re not technically living is because they cannot self-maintain, reproduce or metabolize on their own. For that, they use YOU. Yup, viruses are mad spies that hijack your cells into aiding their heinous schemes. Those schemes being replication of viral DNA and synthesis of viral capsids (think capsule) for the TOTAL TAKEOVER OF YOUR BODY. Remember that chickenpox you had? It planted its DNA in your cells, waiting until you’re old to hit you with shingles. Or not, viruses get senile too. Lucky for us, cytotoxic T-Cells are always up for playing a round of spy vs. spy.

Despite what you may think, fungi are not such fungis (GET IT GET IT). Just ask my brother about the crap that grew in his lungs when he lived in a glorified closet for a year. But I will tell you more about that tomorrow.

OH THE SUSPENSE. OH THE ALLCAPS.

 

 

Source

-. 2010. GRE Subject Test: Biology 5th Ed. Kaplan, New York.

Wassenaar, T. M. 2009. “Pathogenic Bacteria: Bacterial Pathogenicity”. Virtual Museum of Bacteria. 12 Feb, 2013. <http://bacteriamuseum.org/cms/Pathogenic-Bacteria/bacterial-pathogenicity.html&gt;