The song is Muskrat Love, but muskrat poop may treat food poisoning

The first LP I bought for myself as a teenager was Led Zepplin IV, a few years after it came out. My parents were fans of the Captain and Tennille.

I still have a number of bad songs I can recite verbatim from exposure as a kid: Petulia Clark’s Downtown, Burt Bacharach’s Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, and the Captain and Tennille’s Muskrat Love.

So I was filled with nostalgia today when Ki Keun Kim and colleagues at Pusan National University, South Korea, discovered that muskrat poop contains a potent antibiotic that can kill both Salmonella and Vibrio, common bacterial causes of foodborne illness.

Maybe the scientists were inspired by bad 1970s music.
 

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About Douglas Powell

A former professor of food safety and the publisher of barfblog.com, Powell is passionate about food, has five daughters, and is an OK goaltender in pickup hockey. Download Doug’s CV here. Dr. Douglas Powell editor, barfblog.com retired professor, food safety 3/289 Annerley Rd Annerley, Queensland 4103 dpowell29@gmail.com 61478222221 I am based in Brisbane, Australia, 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time