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Standard explanation in terms of mutation and selection; challenged by creationists.
There is controversy over the best policies to keep drug-resistant strains in check. In the 1940s the medical profession began lobbying to make antibiotics available only through prescription to prevent overuse, and educating doctors to be prudent in prescribing them. However, antibiotics are widely added to livestock feed to prevent infection and promote growth, and critics charge that the practice has encouraged the emergence of resistant strains, a charge which the agribusiness industry and the USDA deny.
There is controversy over the best policies to keep drug-resistant strains in check. In the 1940s the medical profession began lobbying to make antibiotics available only through prescription to prevent overuse, and educating doctors to be prudent in prescribing them. However, antibiotics are widely added to livestock feed to prevent infection and promote growth, and critics charge that the practice has encouraged the emergence of resistant strains, a charge which the agribusiness industry and the USDA deny.
The mechanism by which drug resistance emerges was studied by Luria and Delbrück in 1943 and by Lederburg and Lederburg in 1952. Further work established that streptomycin resistance emerges as the result of point mutations at a rate of about one per billion cells, while isoniazid resistance has a mutation rate of one per million. Mainstream textbooks treat this as established science<ref>''Zinsser Microbiology,'' 1968, pp. 163-167, Appleton-Century-Crofts, Library of Congress 68-8386</ref> and it is often cited as an example of rapid evolution. Creationists dispute this interpretation and have developed alternative explanations for the arise and spread of drug-resistance in bacteria.
==Notes and references==
==Notes and references==
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