The main sources of the problem are the antibiotics hog farmers feed to their animals to treat infections, prevent illnesses, and improve growth. That practice causes bacteria in a hog’s gut—often the same kinds that cause disease in humans—to be dominated by antibiotic-resistant variants. Such “superbugs” have been found in pork products and in nearby groundwater and soils, according to other studies. No one had fully investigated whether such bacteria could become airborne, in large part because farmers were reluctant to open their barn doors to researchers. Getting access to the farm for their study took Chapin’s team about a year-and-a-half, she says. They then made two site visits one month apart.

More barn doors—plus a few stockyard gates—may well open for Chapin once she has her Ph.D. in hand. After writing a paper this summer characterizing her work on the resistance-conferring genes in certain airborne bacteria from large-scale hog farms, she wants to expand her studies to poultry farms and cattle yards. “I think it’s important to find out how far the bacteria at these sites travel and whether communities nearby may be exposed,” she says.

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