Quote Originally Posted by Jeremy
Virulent != antibiotic resistant.

Unfortunately bacteria have a very nasty ability to reabsorb the DNA of others. So supposing that we had two bacteria, one with antibiotic resistance and the other one that is the virulent strain. If you kill the virulent strain bacteria via antibiotics then the antibiotic resistant one may pick up the DNA which makes the other virulent.

Now if you want to be really worried the bacteria which we spray our crops with (because we genetically modified it to secrete a crystal which kills certain types of insects [mainly catipillers]) closest relative is anthrax. And it'll will quite happily take up the bit which makes anthrax lethal to animals.
Hmm - I assume you are talking about BT (Bacillus thuringiensis), and that this is the same BT that is used as a pesticide by Organic farmers. There is no way that they would ever get orgainc certification if Bacillus thuringiensis toxin was in any way genetically modified (I'd have a good at organic farmers if it was). That, and NZ's strict controls in the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act would be unlikely to allow release of any material containing viable genetically modified bacteria.

As to Bacillus thuringiensis and its relationship to Bacillus anthracis, both are bacilli of the same genus, so they are phenotypically similar, but BT is quite distinct in its production of intracellular protein crystals that are toxic to lepidopteran insects. The pathogenicity of each species of bacterium is in fact quite different, and specific to each type of host - you make light of horizontal gene transfer, which isn't at all likely in this case given that the last case of anthrax in NZ was in 1954 - in an animal. See here.

If you're worried about anthrax, worry about which armies have it, not about a soil bacterium naturally toxic to lepidoptera - I'd be far more worried about a decent dose of influenza personally...viruses - now there's a cool pathogen!

Don't scaremonger with spurious examples!

This is about all you need to know about anthrax and a bit about BT too.

/Rant.