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Farm animals on antibiotics gain weight faster, mainly because the drugs kill
harmful gut bacteria. But they encourage antibiotic-resistant germs. Harmless
lactobacillus bacteria also destroy gut pathogens, but their short shelf life
has made them hard to use as growth promoters. Now Bio Armor, an animal feed
company in Brittany, has packaged the bacteria in spheres half a millimetre in
diameter, made of a polymer of sugars and amino acids. The spheres, which keep
the bacteria alive until they reach a pig’s gut, go on sale later this year.