Farm animals are transported all over the country. So are their pathogens
As they travel, farm animals can also leave pathogens behind. In one study, scientists found that disease-causing bacteria, including some resistant to antibiotics, were spilling out of moving poultry trucks and into the cars behind them. The trucks “were just spreading these antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” said Ana Rule, a bioaerosol expert at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health and an author of the study. Contaminated transport vehicles are known to spread pathogens long after infected animals have disembarked and could play a role in the dairy cow outbreak, officials said. Infected animals can then spark outbreaks at their destinations,…