Food safety: Dung beetles and soil bacteria reduce risk of human pathogens
Tuesday, March 19, 2019 - 15:40
in Biology & Nature
Food safety regulations increasingly pressure growers to remove hedgerows, ponds and other natural habitats from farms to keep out pathogen-carrying wildlife and livestock. Yet, this could come at the cost of biodiversity. New research encourages the presence of dung beetles and soil bacteria at farms as they naturally suppress E. coli and other harmful pathogens before spreading to humans.