#aureomycin

The Man Who Turned Antibiotics Into Animal Feed–Part 3

Benjamin Duggar (Photo: : BETTMANN/CORBIS)

The introduction of penicillin during World War II was the great world-changing product of that genius, and it prevented tens of thousands of deaths from infected wounds among Allied troops. After the war, the astonishing promise of the antibiotic era set off a scramble for other bacteria-killing drugs. Benjamin Duggar, a botanist who worked mainly on…

The Man Who Turned Antibiotics Into Animal Feed–Part 4

Testing an aureomycin batch at Lederle (Photo: : SUPERSTOCK/GETTY)

Jukes and his staff soon figured out that the “unidentified growth factor” miraculously spurring chick growth was the antibiotic itself. They also found they could get the same growth-promoting effect by feeding chicks on the waste products from the fermentation vats in which Streptomyces auriofaciens was grown, no doubt because…