The second point is important; the first is arguably old news. Farmers have been inadvertently doing the same experiment since the 1950s, by fattening their livestock with low doses of antibiotics. No matter the drug or the species, the result is always the same: the animals grow faster and end up heavier. Everyone knew that these ‘growth promoters’ worked but no one really understood why. Blaser’s work suggests one possible explanation: the drugs disrupt the microbiome, leading to weight gain.
Antibiotics
