Antibiotics and Vaccines

Vaccines have been dramatically effective in reducing threats from viral or bacterial infections in the cat, as in other species.

Viral enteritis, a "parvovirus" sometimes called feline distemper, has virtually disappeared in many parts of the feline world.

Today bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics, and here one problem is that certain bacteria have developed resistance to a range of previously effective antibiotics.

When any population of bacteria is confronted with an antibiotic, sometimes not all die. The trait that allowed the survivors to survive and multiply forms the basis of a new bacterial strain resistant to that antibiotic.

This new strain's resistance can also potentially be transferred to unrelated bacteria. By using antibiotics we have unwittingly accelerated bacterial evolution.