Monthly Archives: April 2016

Taming of beasts: the domestication of pathogens

1280px-Egyptian_Domesticated_Animals

In the past, whenever humans have come across threats from large carnivores, we have killed them or tamed them. Nowadays, our biggest threat to survival is not large animals, but rather disease-causing microorganisms, and we strive to eradicate them with antimicrobials, vaccines and other control measures. But what if, like our ancestors did with wild oxen, wolves, horses and cats, we strove not always to eradicate them, but could ‘domesticate’ some of them for our own benefit?

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