Clues to why most survived China melamine scandal
(AP)—Scientists wondering why some children and not others
survived one of China's worst food safety scandals have
uncovered a suspect: germs that live in the gut. In 2008, at
least six babies died and 300,000 became sick after being fed
infant formula that had been deliberately and illegally tainted
with the industrial chemical melamine. There were some lingering
puzzles: How did it cause kidney failure, and why wasn't
everyone equally at risk? A team of researchers from the U.S.
and China re-examined those questions in a series of studies in
rats. In findings released Wednesday, they reported that certain
intestinal bacteria play a crucial role in how the body handles
melamine. The intestines of all mammals teem with different
species of bacteria that perform different jobs. To see if one
of those activities involves processing melamine, researchers
from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Shanghai
Jiao Tong University gave lab rats antibiotic